Morris sells fish in Toronto’s Kensington Market; across the street, Minnie sells ladies’ hats. They fall in love and want to get married. Minnie would be happy with a little wedding but Morris, wanting to give Minnie the best of everything so she can live like movie star Mary Pickford, convinces her to throw a fancy wedding, scheming that all their friends will feel obliged to buy them the finest gifts and their home will become a virtual Hollywood mansion. But disaster strikes – none of their friends, who feel unworthy, come to the wedding. Things have a way of working out, however. The community celebration after Morris and Minnie return home is more wonderful than they dreamed.

Author Cary Fagan follows up his first children’s book, Gogol’s Coat, also illustrated by Regolo Ricci, with an eminently worthy successor. The Market Wedding is a stunning new picture book that not only perfectly captures the flavour of life in the old Jewish neighbourhood of Kensington Market in Toronto but is also a delicious love story. With an exceptionally dextrous hand, Fagan has adapted “A Ghetto Wedding” by Yiddish writer Abraham Cahan. In making it accessible to contemporary readers, Fagan has relocated the story to 1920s Toronto, playing up the wry, whimsical comedy at its heart and crafting wonderful rhythm and pacing. Regolo Ricci’s oil illustrations (nominated for a Governor General’s Award) beautifully mirror Fagan’s text, bringing to life the sights and sounds of the market in warm russet reds. Like Fagan, Ricci emphasizes the comic in his illustrations, with lots of shy smiles, infectious grins, and laughter. Fagan and Ricci have given an old story a new face but made it their own as well.