Giveaway: "Can I Have a Cell Phone for Hanukkah?" by Sharon Duke Estroff

I recently received a review copy of of Sharon Duke Estroff's recently published parenting book "Can I Have a Cell Phone for Hanukkah?"


In addition, Broadway Books generously sent along five additional copies of this book to give away to Juggling Frogs readers.


If you're interested in receiving a copy, please leave a comment on this post.




On the second day of Chanukah, Wednesday, December 5, 2007, I'll select five of those who have commented on this post at random to receive a copy of the book.


I'll then e-mail those selected and request a postal address. Please only enter this giveaway if you are willing to disclose both a valid e-mail address and a mailing address to me for this purpose. (I won't do anything else with it, of course.)



"Can I Have a Cell Phone for Hanukkah?" is a cute and useful book, a quick read, written in a casual, breezy, reassuring tone, tailored for Jewish parents living in the United States with children enrolled in elementary school.


Ms. Estroff, mother of four, Jewish educational consultant, and author of a nationally syndicated parenting advice column, writes with wit, candor, and authority. She brings issues and wisdom from her personal parenting experiences, those of the families at her day school, and those from her readers together in gentle, measured, moderate, and reasonable, contemporary guide to raising children.


Heavily seasoned with Yiddish-isms and (perhaps one too many) references to bagels, the tone is non-denominational, observance-optional, and without dogma. The examples and approach are based on Jewish tradition, but offered on their merits as suggestions, rather than as religious imperative.


While many orthodox readers will find a couple of chapters less applicable to their lifestyles (e.g. "Santa Envy") and encounter a few bewildering assumptions, there are a number of chapters that everyone can benefit from reading. In particular the chapters that address management of homework, extracurricular activities, toys, and navigating the elementary school social scene were quite on the mark.


Home-schooling is not mentioned or considered.


This is a book targeted to a relatively affluent, American audience of Jewish parents of elementary school-aged children. For example, the cell phone in the title of the book is assumed to be affordable, the choice to give it decided on extra-financial considerations.


Here's the biography the publisher sent me:

About the Author: Sharon Duke Estroff, M.A.T. is a nationally syndicated Jewish parenting columnist whose articles address contemporary and traditional parenting issues within a Jewish context. Her columns appear in over 30 publications which reach over one million readers. She is an educational consultant with Perimeter Educational and Psychological Services in Atlanta and an award-winning Jewish educator with nearly two decades of experience in both public and private schools. As the mother-of-four and the “Best Teacher in a Jewish Day School” in
Atlanta (2001), Estroff knows something about Jewish kids (and their parents).

About the Book: CAN I HAVE A CELL PHONE FOR HANUKKAH? The Essential Scoop on Raising Modern Jewish Kids By Sharon Duke Estroff Published by Broadway Books
October 9, 2007/Trade Paperback Original/$12.95; 304 pages/ISBN: 978-0-7679-2544-0
http://www.broadwaybooks.com/

Putting the Parsha on the Menu: Parashat Vayeshev cakes

Here are a pair of cakes for Parashat Vayeshev. One is of Joseph in his Coat of Many Colors, and the other depicts Joseph's cell-mates' dreams: the wine steward with his accepted wine goblet, and the baker with the birds attacking three loaves of bread.

I made Joseph from a cake baked in a Batman pan. That's why his head is all out of proportion to his body. Underneath all that Amazing Technicolor Frosting, our man Joseph sports rippling biceps, abs to envy, and a very well equiped toolbelt.

Whew! Glad that's over!

Over the past few weeks, we've been under siege. A stomach bug managed to hit every family member, one at a time!

Thank Gd, everyone is fine, and all that remains is a bloated laundry detergent budget.

I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of everyone's kind e-mails, calls, comments, and thoughtful wishes.

I expect to be posting at the regular rate now. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Shabbat Shalom!

Please note: this blog is not updated on Friday nights or Saturdays. Comments made during this time will be put in a queue, to be moderated after Shabbat.

Shabbat Shalom!

Sacrifice, Survival, and Hope

I just read the speech William Safire wrote for President Nixon to deliver if the first lunar landing was unsuccessful. What would the world be like, if that speech had to be delivered?

Reading that speech, I'm overwhelmed at what was risked in the quest for human achievement and knowledge. Our finite understanding of the world takes their success for granted.

Notable amongst my father-in-law's many contributions to the world, he was in charge of the Command and Service Module on Apollo 11. Thus, all things moon-shot-related feel very personal to our family. The heroism of the Apollo astronauts affected the world, our country, and our family.

Today is Veteran’s Day in the United States. This holiday was instituted to thank living veterans for their service, "to acknowledge that their contributions to our national security are appreciated, and to underscore the fact that all those who served - not only those who died - have sacrificed and done their duty."

Every veteran represents a condolence letter composed, but not sent; an epitaph written but not inscribed. What would the world be if they didn't take that risk?

My father-in-law escaped Nazi Germany in 1939. He was nine years old. His parents sent him and his eleven year old brother in a car with a driver, without luggage, to visit relatives in Holland.

At the border, SS officers pulled the boys out of the car, beat them, and interrogated them about their parents' whereabouts. They didn't know. Thank G-d, they were released, and made their way to safety. My husband's grandparents followed the next day, dressed in evening clothes, using a similar ruse. They, too, arrived safely. Thank G-d.

They left a country in which the family had prospered for generations, in which their great-great- grandfathers were buried, without plans or material possessions.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., my mother-in-law’s father, aged 16, lied about his age, so he could enlist in the U.S. Army.

My father-in-law made it to Palestine, and fought in Israel's War of Independence as a teenager.

As a young adult, he came to the United States, again with nothing. To support himself, he moved refrigerators. Eventually, he decided to study engineering. He got his Ph.D., and worked for NASA.

Heroes abound. Not only my debts, but my debtors are incalculable.

This morning, I drove my son down dusty unpaved roads to the middle of a U.S. National State Park, to participate in a 10 mile hike with his shomer shabbat Boy Scout Troop.

He came home this afternoon, cheeks red with enthusiasm and vigor. I looked at him, his kippah (yarmulke) and shirt covered in the dirt of the trail, and marveled at this miracle, this living victory, the direct result of the sacrifice, survival, and hope of so many.

So today, I'm awash in images flags and tombstones, and the free soil they mark. From the family graves, to the flag of Israel, to the field of U.S. flags at Arlington Cemetery, to the flag Neil Armstrong planted on the moon, to the dirt on the embroidered U.S. flag patch attached to my son’s Boy Scout uniform.

May I never take this ground upon which my family, my children, and our future stand for granted.

May those currently at risk in the name of freedom come home safely, that all prewritten eulogies may be torn up for confetti.

May we soon see the day, when the only heroes needed are those that offer themselves to further humanity's reach, rather than to escape from its grasp.

Shabbat Shalom!

Please note: this blog is not updated on Friday nights or Saturdays. Comments made during this time will be put in a queue, to be moderated after Shabbat.

(Here's a picture of the cooling waffle cone bowls, which are to be filled with "red red stuff" of berries and other red sweets. )

Oh, my, but Shabbat gets in early this week. In Boston, now that Daylight Savings changes have been made, candle lighting is 4:11 p.m. today!

Shabbat Shalom!
שבת שלום

---

In other news...

Apparently, Amelia Bedelia is working for Wal-Mart now. Yet, learning new languages comes more easily to others.

---