The Sundown Kid: A Southwestern Shabbat

This is a story about a Jewish family who headed west for adventure. They moved into an adobe house, cleared land for planting, and set up housekeeping. They also prepared for their first Shabbat in their new home. Mama made her soup, but when they sat down to eat, she soon discovered she had made enough for their large community back home. She said she didn’t know how to make a small pot of soup.

Throughout the next week, the family met the blacksmith, storekeeper, and sheriff. As Mama couldn’t make a smaller pot of soup, the sundown kid decided he could make a larger community and invited everyone he had met and their families for chicken soup. At last, the soup was all eaten.

It’s a light-hearted story of how one family adjusted to a move where everything changed. While one might call this a diversity story, it’s just a story of how one family adjusted. Rich colors fill each page so well one can almost smell the chicken soup! Subliminally, the story reminds readers that all kinds of people moved west, not just the ones featured in movies.