BAGELS FROM BENNY

A heartfelt gesture of gratitude takes a surprising but altogether proper twist in this retold folktale. When young Benny’s beloved Grandpa, a baker renowned for his bagels, suggests that God deserves the main credit for them, Benny mulls it over, then begins leaving a bag of them in the synagogue every week. They disappear, which he takes as a good sign—until one time he sees a poor man come in and take them, with a prayer of thanks. Benny is devastated until Grandpa, who’s seen the whole thing, tells him that he’s made the world a little better—“And what better thanks could God have?” Petricic supplies sketchy watercolor scenes of bagelish color and shape, featuring an engagingly small, jug-eared lad in jacket and shorts wrestling great bags of steaming bagels into the Holy Ark. Davis doesn’t supply a recipe (practically a requirement these days for any story involving food), but he does close with a note on his sources. Even younger readers will have no trouble appreciating either the wisdom that Grandpa offers, or the close relationship between him and his devout grandson. (Picture book/folktale. 6-10)