'Bagels from Benny' Provides Much-Needed Parenting Help

With a hearty dose of humor, Jewish parenting blogger Amy Meltzer takes on the issue of God this month. More specifically, she approaches the task of teaching children about God.

Bagels from Benny"Tell your child what you believe," is the advice Meltzer gets from a Rabbi. Unfortunately for her, those vague instructions left her wondering about her own beliefs.

"Theologically speaking," Meltzer writes in her monthly Kveller.com book review, "I'm fairly clear on what I don't believe, but have only a hazy notion of what I do kind-of-sort-of-think I might believe(-ish)."

Enter Bagels from Benny.

Meltzer's family received Bagels from Benny by Aubrey Davis in the mail in April, and it helped Meltzer put her finger on the elusive clarity she sought.

Bagels from Benny is the story of a young boy named Benny, who, in working inside his grandfather's bakery, learns the joys of giving and receiving, caring, and gratitude.

For Amy Meltzer, the book summarily compacted her beliefs into one nifty little story. She writes, "After reading the book for the first time, I felt like jumping up and down shouting, 'This is it! This is what I believe! This is what I want my children to believe!'"

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