{"id":35816,"date":"2020-11-27T03:43:44","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T11:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=35816"},"modified":"2020-11-25T11:36:22","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T19:36:22","slug":"shabbat-with-bubbie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2020\/11\/27\/shabbat-with-bubbie\/","title":{"rendered":"Shabbat with Bubbie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI learned about climate marches and I learned about dancing bubbies,\u201d said my niece Fae, 9, when we were discussing Bonnie Sherr Klein\u2019s new children\u2019s book, Beep Beep Bubbie<\/em>, over FaceTime. Among other things, my niece Charlotte, 7, learned \u201cyou can learn to ride a bike at 53 and anything is possible.\u2026 And I learned about grandmothers who can shush a crying boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid much laughter, including talk about dogs pooping \u2013 Bubbie has a dog \u2013 and what my nieces recalled of Vancouver from their visit here last year, Beep Beep Bubbie<\/em> offered more discussion than I had anticipated. But, before I get to that, I have to say, for the record, that my nieces have dancing bubbies in their lives, and bubbies who can shush crying children, so they more related to these aspects of Bubbie\u2019s character than learned from them. With that qualification and butt covering, I continue with the review, starting with the basic story of the book.<\/p>\n

It is Shabbat and Kate and her little brother Nate are going to visit their grandmother, who is going to take them to Granville Island to buy apples for Rosh Hashanah. The kids have been told there\u2019ll be a surprise waiting for them at Bubbie\u2019s. That surprise, though \u2013 Bubbie\u2019s new scooter \u2013 isn\u2019t a happy one initially for Kate, who \u201calready missed the Bubbie she used to have. That Bubbie danced and took them to climate marches.\u201d However, during the afternoon\u2019s adventures, Bubbie\u2019s scooter not only allows her to venture farther from home than she otherwise would have been able to manage, but has other advantages, as well.<\/p>\n

After their trip to Granville Island, Kate shares a library book that she\u2019s brought along for the visit. About American educator, activist and suffragist Frances Willard, Kate and Nate find out that Willard \u201cfought for women to have the right to vote. When Frances was 53 years old, she learned to ride a bicycle to show that women could do anything.\u201d A conversation ensues about why Willard wouldn\u2019t have known how to ride a bike. \u201cPeople were afraid women\u2019s ankles would show under their petticoats,\u201d explains Bubbie. \u201cCan you believe it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, at my nieces\u2019 house, this part of the book was met with disbelief and more laughter, as Charlotte was keen to show off her ankles, which were hard to see, given the placement of their computer and her being the height of a 7-year-old. But, before things deteriorated into mayhem, Fae said, \u201cI also learned that girls are tough.\u201d And, she \u201clearned another reason why women weren\u2019t treated fairly in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what was that reason?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause women didn\u2019t ride bikes because their ankles were going to show. And they couldn\u2019t vote, [it was] like they didn\u2019t have an opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely not fair,\u201d said Charlotte about people thinking that girls showing their ankles was wrong.<\/p>\n

All in all, Beep Beep Bubbie<\/em> elicited much talk and not an insignificant amount of gymnastics. The illustrations by \u00c9lisabeth Eudes-Pascal are wonderfully colourful and fun; full of energy and movement. Both Fae and Charlotte gave a resounding \u201cyes\u201d when asked if they liked the pictures.<\/p>\n

One the drawings is a two-page spread of Bubbie, Kate and Nate and the park, where they join in the fun of flying kites. One young person is in a wheelchair, and Charlotte asked why Bubbie had chosen a scooter instead. Not knowing the answer, I asked the author. Here is her response: \u201cI chose a motorized scooter over a wheelchair, btw, because it felt more sportif,\u201d wrote Klein in an email, \u201cand I am lucky enough to be able to transfer, which keeps me a bit more mobile.\u201d<\/p>\n

I like knowing, but the reasons aren\u2019t important, as far as the story goes. Art is to be interpreted and my nieces and I talked about a lot of ideas, from serious to silly, during our FaceTime book review session.<\/p>\n

Published by Tradewind Books, Beep Beep Bubbie<\/em> can be purchased from pretty much any online bookseller. Enjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI learned about climate marches and I learned about dancing bubbies,\u201d said my niece Fae, 9, when we were discussing Bonnie Sherr Klein\u2019s new children\u2019s book, Beep Beep Bubbie, over FaceTime. Among other things, my niece Charlotte, 7, learned \u201cyou can learn to ride a bike at 53 and anything is possible.\u2026 And I learned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[6299,2219,2466,20041,20039,4946,20040,2845,9289,20042,20038,3021],"class_list":["post-35816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-activism","tag-aging","tag-art","tag-beep-beep-bubbie","tag-bonnie-sherr-klein","tag-childrens-books","tag-elisabeth-eudes-pascal","tag-environment","tag-illustration","tag-suffrage","tag-tradewind-books","tag-women"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}