“How many times do I have to tell you to take that thumb out of your mouth??!!”

Does this sound familiar? Do you have a little one who still sucks his or her thumb, even though he/she is already a big boy or big girl? Are you at your wits’ end about how to stop this bad habit that is driving you—and lots of other family members—up the wall? If so, then you will be thrilled about our latest treasure of a children’s book, Goodbye, Thumb-Sucking!

Written by noted children’s author Simi Licht, of the Super Social Skills series fame, this book introduces your child to Tziporah, a chronic thumb-sucker who cannot seem to give up her bad habit, no matter what her family tries to do about it. When the special nail cream Tatty buys for her, the white sock Mommy tries putting on her thumb, and even Zaidy’s very tempting offer, don’t seem to help Tziporah stop sucking her thumb, there is only one thing left that can do the trick…

With its charming rhyming stanzas and adorable illustrations that you can’t help but love, Goodbye, Thumb-Sucking is a book you and your child will enjoy reading together again and again!  

Click here to purchase online.

Are you overwhelmed? Stressed out? Feeling that you have so much to do but no time to do it all? We have the solution for you!

The Balabusta’s Daily Organizer: the ideal planner and calendar for the busy Jewish housewife.

For 5 years now, frum women of every type and stripe have come to know and love this amazing organizer, which, though slim and handy, somehow has everything in it. It includes a weekly calendar, complete with Jewish and secular dates and all the Yamim Tovim and (l’havdil) legal holidays, menu planning lists, to-do lists, grocery lists, candle-lighting times in many Jewish communities, tips, and so much more. Little wonder that so many of you have been waiting on pins and needles for this sixth edition to be released!

As you know, there is a time and a place for everything. You just need The Balabusta’s Daily Organizer to help you schedule all your daily activities into your busy life—and then you’ll have found what the time and place is for each thing!

Click here to purchase online.

Do you want to give your child the priceless Hebrew language skills that are so important to his/her success in school? (Just think of how much better Israeli children do in Chumash and Navi, because they speak Ivrit.) Do you have a child who is floundering in Limudei Kodesh (Judaic Studies), because he/she just can’t seem to get his/her hands around the Hebrew language?

Perhaps you are an adult wishing to improve your understanding of Chumash and the Hebrew language, or you are a teacher who would love to upgrade the quality of instruction in Limudei Kodesh by introducing cutting-edge curricular materials that will attract and retain your students’ attention.

If any of the above applies to you, then you will soon be dancing the kazatzke about the Bright Beginnings Chumash Workbooks!

The Bright Beginnings Chumash Workbooks, developed over a sixteen-year period in Yeshiva Darchei Noam of Monsey, NY, are powerful tools that will help you learn how to translate any pasuk in Chumash on your own. The workbooks are designed for classroom use at the grade level when children are first introduced to Chumash; but they can also be utilized at home, if you are a parent looking to enrich the Hebrew skills of your children; and even for adults who want to become more fluent in Chumash and Lashon Kodesh.

With its color-coded system for teaching how to decipher the root word (shoresh) and the various prefixes/suffixes, as well as how to translate each one of them; the carefully designed worksheets that support the synchronized manner in which each lesson is taught; the stimulating shoresh flashcards; and the fun “Shoresh-land” game (included in Volume 2), these workbooks provide a real skill-building program that will throw open wide the doors to learning Chumash and Lashon Kodesh!

Click here to purchase online.

I have a couple of friends who tell me, “I’ll read any story book—but just not a novel. Why should I waste my time and emotions on a bunch of fictional characters, when I could be reading a true story, about real people, instead?”

Now, I happen to not agree with this way of thinking. I think it’s a very good and healthy thing to lose yourself, every once in a while, in a fictional world comprised of fictional people.

But be that as it may, I do hear my friends’ point about the importance of reading true stories, as opposed to only fiction. And it is for this reason that we at Israel Bookshop are committed to bringing you the best in literature of both the fiction and non-fiction types.

A phenomenal non-fiction book that has just recently hit the shelves is From East to West. This well-written, stirring book chronicles the amazing story of a Yemenite family from a hundred years ago, who traveled from Sana’a in Yemen, across deserts and seas and through other unbearable conditions, all the way to Switzerland. Their original intention was to move there temporarily, for medicinal purposes, but Hashgachah deemed otherwise, and years later, Yichye, Saada, and their daughters still find themselves living in Western Europe, far, far away from all that had ever been familiar to them, including their home, family…and little boy Yosef Chaim.

As her parents struggle to find their place as strangers in a strange land, where the customs and culture are so very different from their own, Esther, Yichye and Saada’s oldest daughter, finds herself torn between her heritage and the enticements of the modern world…

From East to West is a true, riveting story that will resonate deep within you. You will find yourselves growing attached to Yichye, Saada, Yosef Chaim, Salach, and the others, and will wait with bated breath to find out how their suspenseful tale ends…

This is a story that will linger on in your heart and mind long after you’ve turned the final page of the book.

Click here to purchase online.

If you’ve got a “tween-ager” in your life, by now you’ve most probably realized that tweens are their own unique breed, with their own likes, dislikes, tastes, and opinions. This can get somewhat complicated when it comes to, say, them deciding one night to stay up till midnight like a full-fledged teenager—when you happen to know that your feisty eleven-year-old, as mature as she feels she is, becomes cranky and irritable when she is without her regular night’s sleep…

Whatever the case, when it comes to books, you can be sure that tweens will most certainly turn up their noses if you offer them too juvenile a book. On the other hand, though, you don’t necessarily want your tween-aged daughter reading about all the complex issues addressed in so many of the teen and adult novels that are being put out these days.

The solution? Simple. To create novels geared especially for tweens.

Popular author M. Jakubowicz set out to do just that when she created The Carpool Clan series. In this first book, Speed Bumps, your tween will read all about a group of girls her very own age, and the rollicking story that they have to share.

Your tween will immediately become hooked to Shevy, her friends, and all of her zany ideas…and you’ll become hooked to this brand new book and series once you see how much fun your tween has reading it!

Click here to purchase online.

For all those who view moving to a different city as “exciting” or “adventurous,” most people who have ever actually done it can assure you that, with an extra large bottle of Advil, and maybe a tranquilizer or two for the really faint of heart, you may actually emerge from the experience in one piece—but don’t push things to expect too much more than that.
The Suskin family, who have recently moved to burgeoning Lakewood, NJ from their small, out-of-town community, can tell you all about it…
Close to Home, our latest novel, is the riveting story of a family’s experience at trying to fit in and settle themselves in a society that, as much as it’s familiar to them, is also quite new and alien compared to what they’re used to. It’s a novel charged with emotion, drama, and painstaking personal growth, as each of the characters in the story attempts to find him-or herself in the midst of lots of raging inner turmoil…
If you’re looking for a great new book whose story you can relate to, whose characters are so realistic you’ll feel like you’ve met them personally; a book that will grip you; a book that you will cry over and laugh over, too—you’ll find that Close to Home fits the bill to the T!

Click here to purchase online.

Service of the Heart, Soul, and Kitchen

A look at Cooking for the King: Winning Recipes for Shabbos and Yom Tov

By Malka Winner

Every year, my friend and I have the same conversation.

“This year, my Rosh Hashanah is going to be all about ruchniyus,” she says. “So I’m making the menu very, very simple.”

“But it’s still Yom Tov,” I protest. “And you have to make food for meal after meal, so you must be cooking something.”

“True,” she concedes. “But still, ruchniyus, not gashmiyus, that’s what matters! Right?”

“Right,” I say. “But what about the simanim?”

And round and round we go…

This year that conversation is going to be different. Enter Cooking for the King, a new cookbook that takes care of the gashmiyus—while nourishing the ruchniyus. Cooking for the King by Renee Chernin (Brand Name Publishing, 2013), is more than a cookbook. It’s a guidebook to Rosh Hashanah, and indeed to domestic life throughout the year, from the grocery store to the kitchen to the table—and everywhere in between.

“The woman who, day in and day out, manages and cares for her Jewish home holds the key to eternity,” Chernin writes. She acknowledges that a life of chores and housework “can feel fragmented.” But when you flip through the pages and see the beautiful photographs of Chernin’s easy-to-make dishes, you can’t help but be caught up in her enthusiasm.

Organized around the structure of a holiday meal—starting with salad and ending with dessert—the cookbook makes you want to just get busy planning your own yom tov meals. And with numerous, appetizing-looking options in each section, the most discerning chef—or most simple cook—will find recipes that appeal to her.

Chernin takes normal, everyday ingredients and turns them into foods with flair, whether it’s the Harvest Bisque, with its surprise ingredient (an apple), or the Best Rosh Hashanah Meatballs, which you’ll want to make year-round. She turns simanim into side dishes, soup, and salad, making Rosh HaShanah preparations easier, without all the simanim needing to be made individually. Many of these recipes are also sure to become perennial classics.

The recipes are easy to follow; they were developed with busy wives and mothers in mind, providing prepare-ahead instructions, shelf-life information, menu suggestions, complementary side dishes, and more. Chernin even shares tips on how to organize and prepare in Elul.

But the truth is, this cookbook isn’t just for Elul and Tishrei. It can be used throughout the year. The majority of the recipes, like the Pareve Cream of Zucchini Soup, the Roasted Beet Chips, the Brown Sugar Salmon, the Caramelized Onion Chicken, and Good as Gold Potatoes, to name a few, are ones you’ll want to use time and again, regardless of whether there’s a yom tov on the calendar.

Chernin’s book so aptly demonstrates that one can eat to indulge or one can use food “to build a bridge between heaven and earth.” Cooking for the King builds a bridge between recipes for food and recipes for life. This year, Rosh Hashanah preparations will be different; Cooking for the King is a siman of that!

Click here to order online.

For those experiencing burnout, life can seem gray and purposeless, full of frustration, tension, anger, and pain. But it’s important to realize that help can be found; there is hope to be had.

Overcoming Burnout was written by someone who experienced burnout—and successfully overcame it. In this book, the author offers a practical guide to help others who find themselves in the same black pit in which he had languished. This book will help readers clarify the cause of their burnout symptoms and put them on the road to resolving the underlying issues at hand.

Endorsed by many leading rabbanim, Overcoming Burnout also contains a Foreword by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, MD.

Click here to purchase online.