Chil­dren’s

Ben­jamin and the Sil­ver Goblet

Jacque­line Jules; Natas­cia Ugliano, illus.

  • Review
By – January 9, 2012

This love­ly illus­trat­ed sto­ry is the third in the series of Bible sto­ries by this author (Ear­li­er ones are Abraham’s Search for God and Sarah Laughs, all of which are rec­om­mend­ed). The sto­ry of Jacob’s twelve sons is retold from the point of view of Ben­jamin, the youngest son. The broth­ers are forced to go to Egypt to buy food and pro­vi­sions dur­ing the ter­ri­ble drought in Canaan, where they meet their old­er broth­er Joseph, now gov­er­nor of the land. Because of the unique point of view, chil­dren will be forced to think about fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships with par­ents and sib­lings, in addi­tion to being intro­duced to the text, which is age-appro­pri­ate and eas­i­ly involves the young read­er. The illus­tra­tions are dra­mat­ic and col­or­ful and effec­tive­ly enhance the tale. This book is ded­i­cat­ed to reli­gious school teach­ers every­where” and this would make a won­der­ful gift for one of those teach­ers and for any Jew­ish library.

Shelly Feit has an M.L.S. and a Sixth-year Spe­cial­ist’s Cer­tifi­cate in infor­ma­tion sci­ence. She is the library direc­tor and media spe­cial­ist at the Mori­ah School in Engle­wood, NJ.

Discussion Questions