Celebrate the fun-filled Jewish holiday of Purim with Hershel, a blind boy who wants to help his mother make hamantashen cakes. Hershel learns that he can see when he closes his eyes. Author’s Note.

Hershel is a boy who becomes blind after an illness. He helps his single mother faithfully as she cooks, cleans, sews and bakes. This tale focuses on Hershel's ability to shape things with his hands. The opening pages show him sculpting river mud into caves and tunnels. An angel visits him and encourages him to 'see' in his mind, and when he does, he arises from bed early and begins to craft his Mother's special Purim cookie dough into wondrous shapes representing the Jewish holiday in a new way that awes his Mother and the entire village. Because of his success, Hershel's confidence in his abilities and possibilities for his future occupation grow and blossom. At the end of the book, it says, 'And he could see himself as a man, a baker, perhaps, with bowls of flour all around. Or a carpenter, or a shoemaker, or a toolmaker. Oh, how happy Hershel was!" ( )

Young, blind Hershel finds that he has special gifts he can use to help his mother during the Jewish holiday of Purim. Features a recipe for hamantashen.

Hershel is the only blind kid in the village and is constantly reminded of it often. I shrugged when his mother said "if you had eyes" to him, but I liked seeing how although this bothered Hershel, he did not let those words diminish his abilities. He was very aware of everything he was capable like doing chores around the house, catching frogs in the river and shaking pears to fall from the neighbor's tree. The Purim is coming and Hershel who is not allowed to help cooking surprises his mother with beautiful and delicious pastries he has made with what he sees in his mind. this was a beautiful story that represented both blind culture and Jewish culture and festivities in a nice way ( )

This book is about a little boy who is blind. His mother bakes during the jewish holiday and sells them. He really wants to help his mother, however she insists that he can't because of his disability. This boy doesn't give up and eventually decided to bake anyway. His cakes were a success and he proved to his mother that he can still accomplish things and help out. His mother learned a lesson and was very proud of him.

Age: 3-7
Source: JBLM Grandstaff Library
Book was used for strategy instruction: Effective Questioning for Adv Lang and Literacy Methods Class at Pierce College