The Shabbat Flood: A Texas-Sized Tall Tale by Jan Schwaid with illustrations by Eveline Andrya; Kar-Ben Publishing, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group; (c) 2026; ISBN 9798765-693940;32 pages; publication date: Oct. 6. 2026; $19.99.
By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
This story, intended to be read to kindergarteners and first graders, mixes Jewish culture with Texas tale-telling notable for exaggerating dimensions.
Thus, grandma Schwaid read to the children that her father, the baker, made the “biggest and best challah in Texas. One loaf could feed a family of six for three months.” When Ethan, the younger of the two grandchildren, asked “really?” grandma responded without skipping a beat: “As long as they weren’t very hungry.” She then continued her tale about the Trinity River bursting at its seams.
At this point, illustrator Andrya got in on the fun, picturing for the book’s cover a cow holding onto a tree, two dogs floating down river atop pieces of overturned furniture, three mice sharing a basket which made a comfy raft, a frog looking comfortable on its lily pad, and a duck wearing a human boot on its head. (I note the coincidence of the artist’s surname, “an-dry-a,” drawing the impact of the flood from the safety of her dry-land studio in Java, Indonesia.)
The father, the baker, fretted that his customers might not get their challahs in time for Shabbat. Grandma, who was a little girl at the time, improvised, making a boat from an empty flour barrel, which accommodated both her and her father as well as the challahs they wished to deliver.
The first house they visited found Mr. Russo sitting on the roof with 126 cats. In their neighborhood, instead of raining cats and dogs, it only rained cats! They gave their neighbor some extra challah dough to patch the roof.
Similar improvisation solved other neighbors’ problems.
Neighbors saved her and her father when their ersatz boat got upended. They paddled back to the baker’s home where they all had Shabbat dinner together.
When it stopped raining, a rainbow stretched all the way to Oklahoma.
Quizzed by Maya, the older grandchild, if the story were true, grandma said it was exactly the way she remembered it.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.