Seven Delightful Stories for Every Day »

Seven short stories, for young children. Each story presents a moral theme. The stories are taken from the Bible as well as from everyday experiences. The "Thinking Thoughts" section at the end of each story presents questions about the story that parents can discuss with their child.

The Second in the "7" series. The double spread illustrations and colorful copy pages make the book easy to read and ideal for storytelling by parents and teachers. Because the stories are by theme, parents and teachers find this series a ready reference when they want to get a moral point across to the young child. The "Thinking Thoughts" section helps the child relate the moral message to their everyday life. The author is editor of "Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul," and has written many books on parenting.

Children's Literature

The author blends together bits of truths from the Jewish Torah, which is also the Christian Old Testament, and tells stories that depict the seven virtues of kindness, responsibility, patience, respect, attitude, hospitality and modesty. While the number seven stands for the biblical number indicating completeness, this book does not. The difficult questions asked of a young child and the "Thinking Thoughts" are inappropriate for this age group. All three picture books in this series—Seven Animals Wag Their Tales, and Seven Animal Stories for Children being the other two—focus on seven different, but similar, virtuous themes—and these are age-appropriate at almost every level. Large-sized text and brightly colored spot art decorate the pages that tell about both the Jewish traditions and cultures, first of long ago, and then of today. An additional double-page illustration separates one story from the next. These large, full-color two-page spreads delight the eye and captivate attention, allowing the reader to "breathe" and to ponder the story—not necessarily the questions—before going on to the next. 2000, Pitspony Press, . Ages 3 to 6. Reviewer: Patricia Timbrook