Overview
Piri is a city girl, but every year she goes to visit her grandmother Babi on her farm in the Ukrainian village of Komjaty. There is a lot that Piri finds strange, even scary, in Komjaty, such as the ghost in the form of a rooster who supposedly haunts the cemetery! But Piri loves country life: making corn bread, eating plums right off the tree, venturing out with her grandmother in the early morning to hunt for mushrooms. And during her time with Babi, Piri learns lessons that will stay with her all of her life, about the importance of honest hard work, of caring for the less fortunate, and of having the courage to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.
In these nine stories, Aranka Siegal paints a tender portrait of the love between a grandmother and granddaughter, inspired by her own experiences with her grandmother.
Memories of Babi is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Synopsis
Piri is a city girl, but every year she goes to visit her grandmother Babi on her farm in the Ukrainian village of Komjaty. There is a lot that Piri finds strange, even scary, in Komjaty, such as the ghost in the form of a rooster who supposedly haunts the cemetery! But Piri loves country life: making corn bread, eating plums right off the tree, venturing out with her grandmother in the early morning to hunt for mushrooms. And during her time with Babi, Piri learns lessons that will stay with her all of her life, about the importance of honest hard work, of caring for the less fortunate, and of having the courage to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.
In these nine stories, Aranka Siegal paints a tender portrait of the love between a grandmother and granddaughter, inspired by her own experiences with her grandmother.
Children's Literature
Every summer, Aranka Siegal was sent from the city by her parents to stay with her grandmother, Babi, who lived in a small Ukrainian village. During these periods, Aranka learned much of the wisdom and the art of storytelling, which she shares with us in this book. The book is divided into nine separate stories about Babi's village and the people in it. Knowing that Babi is living in the last years before Hitler's invasion, after which both the old culture and the Jews who lived in it were destroyed, puts a shadow over the joy that radiates from the storytelling. That combination gives power to the simple stories. The last story is a story about death and the book ends with a paragraph about Babi's own terrible death. The writer leaves us with some of Babi's recipes because everyone knows that recipes passed along are memories in themselves. Aranka Siegal is a gifted writer who is able to quickly develop complex characters. This book should be of interest to those who just like good stories, to those who are interested in Jewish/Christian interaction in the 1930s in the Ukraine, to teachers who are looking for relatively short historical period pieces to read to students for any number of educational reasons, and to Jewish educators who want to share with students the flavor of prewar Jewish Ukrainian life. Aranka Siegal's Memories of Babi is highly recommended. Ms. Siegel has also written Upon the Head of the Goat (Newbery Honor Book) and its sequel, Grace in the Wilderness. Reviewer: Ali Fell
Editorials
Children's Literature -
Every summer, Aranka Siegal was sent from the city by her parents to stay with her grandmother, Babi, who lived in a small Ukrainian village. During these periods, Aranka learned much of the wisdom and the art of storytelling, which she shares with us in this book. The book is divided into nine separate stories about Babi's village and the people in it. Knowing that Babi is living in the last years before Hitler's invasion, after which both the old culture and the Jews who lived in it were destroyed, puts a shadow over the joy that radiates from the storytelling. That combination gives power to the simple stories. The last story is a story about death and the book ends with a paragraph about Babi's own terrible death. The writer leaves us with some of Babi's recipes because everyone knows that recipes passed along are memories in themselves. Aranka Siegal is a gifted writer who is able to quickly develop complex characters. This book should be of interest to those who just like good stories, to those who are interested in Jewish/Christian interaction in the 1930s in the Ukraine, to teachers who are looking for relatively short historical period pieces to read to students for any number of educational reasons, and to Jewish educators who want to share with students the flavor of prewar Jewish Ukrainian life. Aranka Siegal's Memories of Babi is highly recommended. Ms. Siegel has also written Upon the Head of the Goat (Newbery Honor Book) and its sequel, Grace in the Wilderness. Reviewer: Ali FellSchool Library Journal
Gr 4-7
It takes an eloquent weaver of words to entice readers into the world of rural, pre-World War II Ukraine, and Siegal does just that in these nine exquisite tales. Youngsters visit Babi's farm and the town of Komjaty, seeing it through the eyes of young Aranka, who spent summers there with her grandmother. The beauty of the countryside comes through, but so does the anti-Semitism, the superstitions, and the poverty. The stories and the lessons learned resonate as the character and readers discover life in the Carpathian Mountains together. The love between grandmother and granddaughter especially shines through as Siegal retells the lessons that she asserts have become even more meaningful to her in the intervening years.-Ernie Bond, Salisbury University, MD