Review: What Shape Is Your Bagel?


What Shape Is Your Bagel? A First Book of Jewish Food

by The Macaroons, illustraed by Shahar Kober

Doubleday (imprint of Random House Children's Books), 2025

Category: Board Books
Reviewer: Heidi Rabinowitz
 
 
This short rhyming book introduces various Ashkenazi Jewish foods by their shapes - a bagel is a circle, a matzah is a square, and so on. Some of the shapes may be less familiar to the preschool audience - the trapezoid shaped glass of Shabbos grape juice, for example, and the cylindrical blintzes (the only 3D shape included). Some of the foods are associated with holidays, while others just represent Jewish cuisine generally. Cozy, colorful illustrations by the talented Shahar Kober show Jewish eaters with a variety of skin and hair colors, although dietary habits imply that all of these characters are Ashkenazim.

The book is a companion to a cute song of the same title by The Macaroons (Shawn Fogel, Dan Saks, and Dave Schneider), which can be played or downloaded from https://themacaroons.bandcamp.com/track/what-shape-is-your-bagel. However, the book can stand alone, and may indeed work better as a read-aloud without the music since the chorus (repeated several times in the song) appears only once at the end of the book.

Parents of Jewish toddlers and teachers in Jewish preschools will appreciate this book for its review of shapes and foods. It may even inspire them to try some new foods, or to start looking for shapes in the world around them.
 
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Reviewer Heidi Rabinowitz is one of the co-admins of The Sydney Taylor Shmooze, along with Susan Kusel and Chava Pinchuck. She hosts The Book of Life Podcast: A Show About Jewish Kidlit (Mostly) at bookoflifepodcast.com. Heidi is Past President of the Association of Jewish Libraries, and Library Director at Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida. 

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