ELLA KVELLEPHANT AND THE SEARCH FOR BUBBE'S YIDDISH TREASURE

Hunting a “lost” language.

Ella the elephant and her pachyderm family—Bubbe, Zeyde, and little brother Eli—visit the beach. Bubbe peppers her conversation with Yiddish words but regrets she’s forgotten—“lost”—many words in that ancient language; she calls them a “treasure.” Ella, proud of her treasure-hunting skills, promises to help Bubbe find them and builds a ship from sand to go exploring. A wave ruins it, but undaunted Ella falls asleep and dreams of adventure. Alas, she doesn’t find what she seeks because she doesn’t know what a “lost language” looks like. As the family gets ready to head home, Ella spies a Yiddish lexicon on a table displaying “Seaside Treasures” and—better yet—recaps the day in an animated exclamation laced with every Yiddish word Bubbe used, even in the order she said them! Bubbe confirms Ella’s hunting prowess, crowing that the Yiddish “was inside you all along!” This cheerful story celebrating a loving family overplays the language shtick and strains credulity: Ella doesn’t know what Yiddish is yet can recall all Bubbe’s Yiddish terms and verbalize them correctly in context on her first try soon after hearing the words. The energetic illustrations fare better; the depiction of Ella’s shipboard exploration is especially vivid. All characters are animals. Yiddish words are set in a larger, boldfaced, capitalized red font. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Cute but somewhat illogical.