The Magic Stove

by Mirra Ginsburg, Linda Heller (Illustrator)

An old man, his wife, and their rooster enjoy the delicious pies their magic stove bakes for them, until a greedy king comes to visit.

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Mirra Ginsburg was a Jewish Russian-American translator of Russian literature, a collector of folk tales and a children's writer. Born in Bobruisk (then part of the Russian Empire, now part of modern-day Belarus) in 1909, she moved with her family to Latvia, then to Canada, before they settled in the United States. Although she won praise for her translations of adult literature, including the Master and Margarita (1967) by Mikhail Bulgakov and We (1972) by Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin, she is perhaps most celebrated for her contributions to children's literature. She collected and translated a vast array of folktales from the Russian tradition, as well as Siberian and Central Asian traditions. Ginsburg died in 2000.

Reviews

[Deborah Duncan]

I love this story! I was a Children's Librarian for many years, and loved acting this story out with my staff. We used a puppet for the rooster, and acted out the parts of the old man, his wife and the King. We had a pâpier maché stove, and several pie props which we secretly put inside the stove as they appeared in the story. We narrated the story and then acted out the starring roles. Kids always loved supplying the names of new pies, which we pretended to gobble up. The illustrations are old fashioned, and not really suitable for groups, which is why we told it instead. Great story, thanks Mirra Ginsberg!