Status
Available
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Publication
Tundra Books (2010), 192 pages
Description
Treat yourself to a visit to the wackiest restaurant ever!Ten-year-old Shoshi and her eight-year-old brother, Moshe, arrive in New York in 1898 from Russia with their mother and Snigger, the baby dragon that saved them from an attack by Cossack soldiers. Five years earlier, their father had also come to New York to make his fortune, but no one has heard from him since. Through a series of adventures and misadventures, Shoshi and Moshe use their wits to navigate through New York City's Lower East Side, making new friends and even a few foes: Salty, the seaman who helps the family smuggle Snigger through Ellis Island; Aloysius P. Thornswaddle, carnival barker extraordinaire; Dingle Hinglehoffer, pitcher for the Brooklyn Slobbers; and the mysterious Man in the Black Cape. With the help of Snigger, they set out to solve the mystery behind their father's disappearance, helping to free the Lower East Side from the tyrannical rule of gangster Nick the Stick along the way. Mrs. Kaputnik's Pool Hall and Matzo Ball Emporium is a colorful tale that blends history and fantasy with a journey of discovery, adventure, and fun.… (more)
Library's review
This was a fun, cleverly written book. Obviously, with a baby dragon in the middle of things, it doesn't take itself too seriously. Still, there is a lot here about life on the Lower East Side for middle grade kids to absorb. Written with frequent small "cliff-hangers" at the ends of chapters, the
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plot moves quickly, following Shoshi and her brother as they travel to America and adjust to life in New York. Although many aspects of the story are not believable, the book felt like it was meant to have a folk/fairy-tale quality and plausibility was not generally an issue for me. The one point that bothered me was that Shoshi happened to have learned enough English through a teacher in Poland to be able to communicate well as soon as she arrived. I think I would have preferred to see a more realistic take on the language barrier, as that was such a hurdle for immigrants. Otherwise, with an eye toward reading this to middle-grade students, I enjoyed the story. Show Less
Language
User reviews
LibraryThing member CatheOlson
Ten-year-old Shoshi and her younger brother Moshe, along with their mother, leave their small village in Russia to find their father who left the family 5 years earlier to make his fortune in New York City. To complicate matters further, they have a baby dragon who causes his share of trouble but
The book was well written and I enjoyed the history -- traveling from Europe to New York, Ellis Island, and all the Jewish culture references . . . but I am having trouble figuring out who the audience would be for this book. The historical aspects, the subplots, and all the characters the reader needs to keep track of seem geared for older elementary age children, but the dragon and his antics seemed aimed for the early chapter book crowd. I'm not sure this book would be compelling for kids. While there were parts I liked, there were a lot of slow parts as well--especially at the beginning. I'm going to pass this on to my daughters and get their opinion, after which I'll revise this review.
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ends up saving the day.The book was well written and I enjoyed the history -- traveling from Europe to New York, Ellis Island, and all the Jewish culture references . . . but I am having trouble figuring out who the audience would be for this book. The historical aspects, the subplots, and all the characters the reader needs to keep track of seem geared for older elementary age children, but the dragon and his antics seemed aimed for the early chapter book crowd. I'm not sure this book would be compelling for kids. While there were parts I liked, there were a lot of slow parts as well--especially at the beginning. I'm going to pass this on to my daughters and get their opinion, after which I'll revise this review.
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LibraryThing member Pebblesgmc
Mrs. Kaputnik's Pool Hall and Matzo Ball Emporium by Rona Arato introduced me to aspects of Russian/Jewish life that I had not thought of before. The kids Shoshi and Moshe face many problems. Having a Dragon can be hazardous! I had ancestors come throught Ellis Island and thier name was changed
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also. I liked the book, and will read it to my Grandduaghter when she is a little older. Show Less
LibraryThing member the1stdaughter
This was a wonderful tale of two children and their fantastical friend, Snigger the dragon. Every bit of Mrs. Kaputnik's Pool Hall and Matzo Ball Emporium was filled with history, adventure and fun. Following their journey to the 'New World' you see how Shoshi and Moshe handle a new place and the
Shabbat_Challos"Most of my readers don't know this, but for a short time after graduating high school I was a nanny for a great Jewish family in Texas. Being born and raised in a Christian home this was quite the learning experience for me. The two children I cared for were quite young, around two and five, and each night we had to recite prayers in traditional Hebrew. I was also able to witness quite a few 'Shabbats' that occur every week for a day of rest. It was a wonderful experience for me as someone who had never had these experiences before.
I bring this part of my life up because much of the book revolves around the religious beliefs of the characters, which happen to be Jewish. Rona Arato did a fabulous job of blending just the right amount of information with story to provide an entertaining and educational reading experience.
Overall, I think this was definitely a treat to read. Quick, fun, with a lot of adventure and even a little bit of history behind the true events happening during the time of the book. Readers of Middle Grade fiction and kids alike will love the tale of Moshe and Shoshi and their exciting friend Snigger the dragon.
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search for their missing father along with trying to hide a very large dragon. It was a delightful and quick read that I even learned a few new things from.Shabbat_Challos"Most of my readers don't know this, but for a short time after graduating high school I was a nanny for a great Jewish family in Texas. Being born and raised in a Christian home this was quite the learning experience for me. The two children I cared for were quite young, around two and five, and each night we had to recite prayers in traditional Hebrew. I was also able to witness quite a few 'Shabbats' that occur every week for a day of rest. It was a wonderful experience for me as someone who had never had these experiences before.
I bring this part of my life up because much of the book revolves around the religious beliefs of the characters, which happen to be Jewish. Rona Arato did a fabulous job of blending just the right amount of information with story to provide an entertaining and educational reading experience.
Overall, I think this was definitely a treat to read. Quick, fun, with a lot of adventure and even a little bit of history behind the true events happening during the time of the book. Readers of Middle Grade fiction and kids alike will love the tale of Moshe and Shoshi and their exciting friend Snigger the dragon.
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LibraryThing member Stevil2001
This children's novel tells the story of a family of Russian Jews, the Kapustins, emigrating to the United States in the early 20th century. Of course, as one can see from the cover, they do not immigrate by themselves-- their dragon, Snigger, discovered days before they move, accompanies them.
The novel, like many children's books about immigration, is concerned with the construction of a national, American identity which rewrites the identities of the immigrants and also is enhanced by additions from the immigrants. America's effect on the immigrants is seen most literally in the names of the characters; they start out the novel called the Kapustins, but a misunderstanding on Ellis Island results in them accidentally being renamed the Kaputniks. (This moment is curiously underplayed and casual. Of course, part of the joke there is that the characters do not quite realize what has happened, but the narrator does not seem all that interested, either.) The newly-named Kaputniks must reshape themselves to fit into America; Mrs. Kaputnik's only culinary ability is matzo balls, so she serves those at her restaraunt, but she also incorporates games such as billiards and that one where you throw balls at milk cans to make ends meet. A wide variety of characters instruct the Kaputniks on how to act as Americans.
On the other hand, the Kaputniks also have their effect on America. They introduce the people of New York's Lower East Side to delicious matzo balls, but more importantly they help reform America. They are disappointed when they get there, because their restaurant becomes the victim of a protection racket, showing that America is not the land of opportunity they all thought it was. But across the course of the novel, the Kaputniks work to undermine and defeat the gangter (one Nick the Stick) so that America can be the place it was always meant to be. Perhaps the most blatant example of this is that they stop him from fixing a baseball game; what could be more American than making sure baseball runs smoothly? Morally and culturally, America benefits from the presence of the immigrant, and the disappoints that they encounter on arrival are soon weeded out. It's a pretty typical gambit for a novel about American immigrants, especially one for children, but it works well.
If there's any flaw the book has, it's that it's somewhat underwritten. Description of what the characters are thinking (or doing during a conversation) is often slight, making it hard to judge how anyone actually feels about what is going on. Tension is sometimes lacking as a result, such as during the climactic baseball game, which is just a series of impersonal events. There is also not a lot of work done to distinguish the two child protagonists: Shoshi is older and a girl, whereas Moshe is younger and a boy, but they are fairly interchangeable, and whenever I went away from the book for a day or so (I was reading during exam week, so it took longer than 188 pages should have), I had to reorient myself on which child was which because they always blended into each other. The supporting characters, especially Salty the sailor and Aloysius P. Thornswaddle the circus owner, are much more recognizeable, though that is due to their status as stereotypes more than anything else. But they're enjoyable stereotypes.
The problem with the supporting characters is that they tend to remove the agency of the protagonists. Near the end of the book, Snigger is stolen, but who stole Snigger is pretty complicated, and it ends up putting the Kaputniks more at the mercy of forces than in control of them. Which may be more realistic, but is somewhat uninteresting to read. These kids own a dragon, dangit! I want to see them mean to win! It also bothers me how the good characters triumph in the end... it's exactly the same thing Nick the Stick was doing, but when he did it, it was evil.
One thing you can't fault this book for, however, is being fun. This is more down to Snigger than anything else-- his hijinks rarely caused me to laugh out loud, but they did generally amuse. I enjoyed the many segments where the children had to stop Snigger from doing something to ruin everything, especially in the early part of the novel when they needed to stop anyone else on their passenger ship from knowing he was aboard. I also really liked the depiction of their street and their slow acclamation to it; there's a nice sense of bustling here, but the novel also hits up one of my favorite tropes, that of the rural resident's first frightening entrance into an urban environment with unknown rules. Of course, things turn out pretty all right for the Kaputnik's, but the fun is balanced with enough menace for a book this slight. It's small in both size and ambition, but it achieves most of what it wants to do reasonably well.
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Having a dragon in one's care can, of course, be both a curse and a blessing.The novel, like many children's books about immigration, is concerned with the construction of a national, American identity which rewrites the identities of the immigrants and also is enhanced by additions from the immigrants. America's effect on the immigrants is seen most literally in the names of the characters; they start out the novel called the Kapustins, but a misunderstanding on Ellis Island results in them accidentally being renamed the Kaputniks. (This moment is curiously underplayed and casual. Of course, part of the joke there is that the characters do not quite realize what has happened, but the narrator does not seem all that interested, either.) The newly-named Kaputniks must reshape themselves to fit into America; Mrs. Kaputnik's only culinary ability is matzo balls, so she serves those at her restaraunt, but she also incorporates games such as billiards and that one where you throw balls at milk cans to make ends meet. A wide variety of characters instruct the Kaputniks on how to act as Americans.
On the other hand, the Kaputniks also have their effect on America. They introduce the people of New York's Lower East Side to delicious matzo balls, but more importantly they help reform America. They are disappointed when they get there, because their restaurant becomes the victim of a protection racket, showing that America is not the land of opportunity they all thought it was. But across the course of the novel, the Kaputniks work to undermine and defeat the gangter (one Nick the Stick) so that America can be the place it was always meant to be. Perhaps the most blatant example of this is that they stop him from fixing a baseball game; what could be more American than making sure baseball runs smoothly? Morally and culturally, America benefits from the presence of the immigrant, and the disappoints that they encounter on arrival are soon weeded out. It's a pretty typical gambit for a novel about American immigrants, especially one for children, but it works well.
If there's any flaw the book has, it's that it's somewhat underwritten. Description of what the characters are thinking (or doing during a conversation) is often slight, making it hard to judge how anyone actually feels about what is going on. Tension is sometimes lacking as a result, such as during the climactic baseball game, which is just a series of impersonal events. There is also not a lot of work done to distinguish the two child protagonists: Shoshi is older and a girl, whereas Moshe is younger and a boy, but they are fairly interchangeable, and whenever I went away from the book for a day or so (I was reading during exam week, so it took longer than 188 pages should have), I had to reorient myself on which child was which because they always blended into each other. The supporting characters, especially Salty the sailor and Aloysius P. Thornswaddle the circus owner, are much more recognizeable, though that is due to their status as stereotypes more than anything else. But they're enjoyable stereotypes.
The problem with the supporting characters is that they tend to remove the agency of the protagonists. Near the end of the book, Snigger is stolen, but who stole Snigger is pretty complicated, and it ends up putting the Kaputniks more at the mercy of forces than in control of them. Which may be more realistic, but is somewhat uninteresting to read. These kids own a dragon, dangit! I want to see them mean to win! It also bothers me how the good characters triumph in the end... it's exactly the same thing Nick the Stick was doing, but when he did it, it was evil.
One thing you can't fault this book for, however, is being fun. This is more down to Snigger than anything else-- his hijinks rarely caused me to laugh out loud, but they did generally amuse. I enjoyed the many segments where the children had to stop Snigger from doing something to ruin everything, especially in the early part of the novel when they needed to stop anyone else on their passenger ship from knowing he was aboard. I also really liked the depiction of their street and their slow acclamation to it; there's a nice sense of bustling here, but the novel also hits up one of my favorite tropes, that of the rural resident's first frightening entrance into an urban environment with unknown rules. Of course, things turn out pretty all right for the Kaputnik's, but the fun is balanced with enough menace for a book this slight. It's small in both size and ambition, but it achieves most of what it wants to do reasonably well.
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LibraryThing member mariah2
Mrs. Kaputnik’s Pool hall and Matzo Ball Emporium tells the story of Mrs. Kaputnik, AKA Mrs. Kapustin, and her two children, Shoshi and Moshe, as they leave Russia for America. In Russia they are in constant danger due to their Jewish faith, and on top of that they take a lot of abuse from their
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neighbors about the disappearance of Mr. Kaputnik when he moved to America years before. They received one letter from him after his arrival to America, and one letter only. On top of all their difficulties of relocating to America, which included a long voyage by train and steamship, making it through Ellis Island, having their name changed, and having all their money stolen, they have to figure out what to do with their dragon. This story is a good way to introduce children to some aspects of history such as the atrocities faced by the Jewish people living in Russia, and the immigrant experience in the early 1900s. Because of this, I believe it is best read by an adult to a child or children so it can be discussed. I believe the book lacked some character development, which is why I gave it three stars. Character development is important no matter who the target audience is, and unfortunately many of these characters were a bit flat. Even the fire breathing dragon was a bit flat at times. I can not see this book ever becoming a classic, but I can see it as a great tool to introduce some scary topics in a non threatening way. Show Less
LibraryThing member DWWilkin
I am much older then a child, so Children's books are not generally my thing at my age. The subject matter however spoke to me. My great grandfather immigrated into New York and then migrated to Wallace Idaho where he ran a Pool Hall. No Matzo Balls though... I thought I would read this to get the
That I am not enamored of that is by no means to say that the book is bad. It is hard to imagine a Matzo Ball so heavy that you could throw it and it would crash the old metal milk bottles like a side show games. The cooks in my family all make excellent ones. I think it has something to do with the shmaltz... In the end, that is what this story has some of, but not enough, shmaltz. Not enough Yiddishkite. A veneer of it, and not enough of the veneer of immigrant america to hold an adult's imagination.
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feel of the immigrant experience. There are parts, too few, where Ms. Arato speaks to those moments. More is spent on the childlike fantasy that evolves from her story. Names like Kaputnik and Thornswaddle go a long ways to paring down the history of the time and bringing into play a world that pre-adolescents might enjoy.That I am not enamored of that is by no means to say that the book is bad. It is hard to imagine a Matzo Ball so heavy that you could throw it and it would crash the old metal milk bottles like a side show games. The cooks in my family all make excellent ones. I think it has something to do with the shmaltz... In the end, that is what this story has some of, but not enough, shmaltz. Not enough Yiddishkite. A veneer of it, and not enough of the veneer of immigrant america to hold an adult's imagination.
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LibraryThing member paeonia
Mrs. Kaputnik's Pool Hall and Matzo Ball Emporium feels like an uneasy combination of two stories. The first is the story of Jewish family emigrating to the United States from Russia, escaping poverty and persecution. In this story we learn about pogroms, the deplorable living conditions on board
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the ship taking them to America, the customs hurdles at Ellis Island and the difficulties of starting a new life. The second is a kind of comedy slapstick involving, improbably, a dragon, a rogue sailor, a detective disguised as a sideshow barker, and a losing baseball team, all with annoying silly names. The slapstick elements belittle the serious parts of the story, and are not strong enough to be totally successful. Coincidence seems to play an inordinately large role in this book. The author seems to have attempted to include too many elements for an entirely successful story. Show Less
LibraryThing member sleepy_andrea_jean
Although I think it might take a special kid to be interested in a story about old-timey immigrants, Mrs. Kaputnik does feature a fire-breathing dragon and a surprisingly cute story! My main criticism is that a lot of the characterization and dialogue was very stereotypical. ("You foolish boy!" a
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'bad guy' says to one of the protagonists. "That egg is of no use to you.") Show Less
LibraryThing member dougcornelius
I have mixed feelings about this book.
It’s about ten-year-old Shoshi, her eight-year-old brother, Moshe, and their pet dragon Snigger as they escape the Cossacks of Russia to the streets of New York City in 1898. Kids and a dragon in a story are usually a great combination. Kids love to read
My six-year old had hard time getting into the story. I had to make us stick with reading the book for the first several chapters. Eventually, he started enjoying the story more. Once we finished, he asked me started again from the beginning. That was a big endorsement from him.
I enjoyed the book much less than he did. All of the adults come across as mean, uncaring, criminal or suspected of being criminal. Even Mrs. Kaputnik, the mother of Moshe and Soshi, comes across as mostly mean and uncaring in the book.
I had a big problem with the name of the dragon. It’s too easy to drop the “s” from snigger. I think I will pronounce it with a hard “I” on the second time through.
In the end, if my kids like the book it gets a positive review, even if I don’t like it as much.
It’s about ten-year-old Shoshi, her eight-year-old brother, Moshe, and their pet dragon Snigger as they escape the Cossacks of Russia to the streets of New York City in 1898. Kids and a dragon in a story are usually a great combination. Kids love to read
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about dragons.My six-year old had hard time getting into the story. I had to make us stick with reading the book for the first several chapters. Eventually, he started enjoying the story more. Once we finished, he asked me started again from the beginning. That was a big endorsement from him.
I enjoyed the book much less than he did. All of the adults come across as mean, uncaring, criminal or suspected of being criminal. Even Mrs. Kaputnik, the mother of Moshe and Soshi, comes across as mostly mean and uncaring in the book.
I had a big problem with the name of the dragon. It’s too easy to drop the “s” from snigger. I think I will pronounce it with a hard “I” on the second time through.
In the end, if my kids like the book it gets a positive review, even if I don’t like it as much.
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ISBN
0887769675 / 9780887769672