Beautiful Yetta: The Yiddish Chicken

Wonderful happy book no child should be without. Not even an adult. Well written and beutifully illlusrated.

I also heard the interview on NPR and ordered the book to take with my wife and me on our cross-country flight to visit our 20 month old and 39 month old grandchildren. (What is it with this month thing, I had to use a calculator to figure my age as 763 months!) Both children loved the book, and after my brilliant son figured out the parrots were speaking Spanish and not Yiddish, I let him read the Spanish parts in English and Spanish, while I read Yetta's part in English and fractured Yiddish. Fortunately for someone aged 763 months, the narration is in English. It is a well-written, heart warming tale with a wonderful ending.

I heard Scott Simon and Daniel Pinkwater read this on NPR's "Weekend Edition" and I knew I had to have it. I received it today and am looking forward to practicing reading it aloud. I need to get a good squawk in my voice when I say "Gevalt!" Thanks so much to Daniel and Jill Pinkwater for an excellent book.

One of my 5-year old daughters favorite books! She loves how the parrots welcome Yetta. She asks me to make each animal "talk to her". Wonderful way to teach children that all people (or chickens) have feelings and that it is a Jewish (and human!) value to be kind to and make welcome those from other cultures. Yetta is beautiful.

We received this book through PJ library, and it quickly went to the top of the nighttime reading list for my 2 and 3 year olds. They love the story, they love repeating the Yiddish and Spanish after me (their favorite phrase is "farstunkene katz!"), and the story leads to lots of questions from them as well (Why do the birds eat pizza from the garbage? Why can't Yetta stand on the telephone wire?"). It's fun to read aloud as well, and the English is simple enough for my 3 year old to read independently, yet not so simple that it puts me to sleep. A delight.