While her New­bery Hon­or Book, Upon the Head of the Goat, tells the sto­ry of her child­hood in Hun­gary dur­ing World War II and the sequel, Grace in the Wilder­ness, recounts her expe­ri­ences after lib­er­a­tion, some 20 years lat­er, Aran­ka Sie­gal revis­its her child­hood before the war. Focus­ing on the time she spent with her beloved grand­moth­er, Babi, who lived alone on a small farm just across the Hun­gar­i­an bor­der in Ukraine, Siegal’s nine inter­re­lat­ed sto­ries impart sim­ple yet valu­able lessons of faith, hon­esty, hard work, com­pas­sion, and courage. She paints a nos­tal­gic but real­is­tic pic­ture of coun­try life — gath­er­ing mush­rooms, spin­ning thread, bak­ing chal­lah, and pluck­ing chick­ens — but also expos­es the ten­sions between Chris­tians and Jews and the under­cur­rents of anti-Semi­tism, reveal­ing Babi’s fate at the hands of the Nazis at the end of the final sto­ry. The append­ed recipes add charm to this beau­ti­ful­ly writ­ten, delight­ful col­lec­tion. Ages 10 – 12.