Ziggy's Big Idea
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Ziggy loves coming up with new inventions. Unfortunately, though, most of his inventions just don't work out, like the square 'Ziggyball' or the 'shulstilts' he makes for Rabbi Levi.
Ziggy's father sells buns for Moishe the Baker, but Mrs. Schwartz always complains that the buns are undercooked at the center. That's when Ziggy puts his creative mind to work, with his idea for making the bakers buns tastier and easier to carry, leading to the creation of one of the worlds favorite treats - the bagel! Bagel recipe included.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Long and Joni posit a new origin story for the ubiquitous bagel (the existing legends are noted on the book's final page). It all started in the shetl, they say, where a wildly inventive boy named Ziggy wants to solve the plight of Moishe the baker, whose "top secret boiled buns" (which are "boiled then baked, making them soft and fluffy inside, and gold and crunchy on the outside") have a serious design flaw: "Mrs. Schwartz complains the buns are undercooked at the center." Ziggy's innovation: don't think bun, think bracelet. With an empty hole at the center, there's nothing to undercook, and even the finicky Mrs. Schwartz is impressed with the result. It's solid storytelling, and Joni's earth-toned drawings are a pleasing mix of flattened perspectives, dimensionality, and texture. There's a good joke about another one of Ziggy's inventions ("shulstilts," to help a short rabbi "see eye to eye with the bar mitzvah boys!"), but the overall approach is earnest and affirming. Ages 5 9.
