Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

We are in the enchanted world of the Wishniak, a shtetl, where dybbuk’s can wreak havoc, wonder rabbis perform miracles, or—as it happens in Moishe’s Miracle by Laura Krauss Melmed—frying pans can produce unlimited amount of latkes, potato pancakes, for Hunakkah. The catch: only Moishe, the generous milkman can use the new pan effectively. When it is used for free to feed the whole villages it works great. When his wife sets out to earn a few kopeks it fails miserable. The final outcome however is shalom habayit, peace in the house. That’s worth of not having free latkes, isn’t it?

The whole book is bursting with energy and humor. David Slonim’s oilpaintings and Al Cetta’s gorgeous typography round up the user experience to pure pleasure. The penultimate page includes the almost unavoidable summary of what Hanukkah is about and the last page contains a short glossary of Yiddish and Hebrew words used in the book. There were a few I was not familiar with myself.

Too often, when reading books to children we skip the dedication. In the case of Nathan’s Hanukkah Bargain by Jacqueline Dembar Greene I would advise against it. It reads, “Affectionately dedicated to all our Grandpas, because they always understand. – J.D.G.” Surely, the 9-12 year old target audience wuold understand it. The multidirectional affection shows up throughout the pages. Grandpa is shown as wise, warm, understanding figure both in text and in Steffi Karen Rubin’s three-tone pictures. In return his grandson Nathan respects him and inspired him. In his search to find the perfect menorah for Hanukkah he could buy with the five dollar he saved they set out shopping. The first few shops had lots of options, but none of them was right. After Grandpa shares his childhood memory of bargaining with peddlers, Nathan takes the initiative and talks down the price of the kind of Hannukah he was looking for at an antique (or thrift store if you wish) store. They return home with the great experience, a new skill, some bonding memories and last but not least the object they set out for. Don’t we all wish for this kind of grandpas and days?

I don’t feel the need to write a better summary of Jeremy’s Dreidel by Ellie Gellman than the official one-liner, so here it is: Jeremy signs up for a Hanukkah workshop to make unusual dreidels and creates a clay dreidel with braille dots for his dad, who is blind. This story is told on 23 pages of the 32 pages. What is missing from the above description is Jeremy’s hesitation, the class’ acceptance, the classmates’ projects, the beauty of Judith Friedman’s illustration and the heartwarming feeling you get when you read the whole story with or to your 4-8 year old children. What’s even more fun is the instructions ate the back on how to make some untraditional dreidels creatively, The last pages of the book tell you how to play the game with them and even shows you the Braille letters for what goes no the dreidels: nun, gimal, hey, and shin

Davey in David Gantz’s Davey’s Hanukkah Golem live in a modern city. His grandfather though tells him the centuries old story of how the Golem protected the Jews in Prague. On the first night of Hanukkah gets a shine new scooter. When he takes it for a spin next day he thinks he is getting chased by other scooters, while his chasers think they are all in scooter race. Davey climbs into a cave in the city park, where he finds clay. He builds his own mini-golem from it, and when he gets out much later he attributes the golem protecting him and his scooter that he left behind unattended. All is well, and he gets home just in time to light his own Hanukkah candles. He gives his golem to grandpa as a sign of appreciation.

That’s all there is to this story, but it is written and more importantly illustrated more eloquently with black and white line pictures, into which the text is woven. The front cover shows Davey and Grandpa, while the back covers has the golem protecting the city. Pick this one up, particularly if you are planning to give Hanukkah gifts to your children

Barbara Cohen’s The Christmas Revolution was written for fourth graders and its heroes and anti-heroes are of the same age. In the center of the story are twin sisters, from a liberal Jewish family, who react differently to their newcomer classmate, an orthodox Jewish boy’s refusal in class to participate in the communal Christmas festivities. One of the girls, join his (literally) silent revolution, while the other cannot refuse the honor of signing solo in the Christmas production, despite that the words she has to sing are full of references to Christianity.

This is the essence of the revolution from the title, but there is much more going on. Through the various interactions on how toppled the school’s Christmas tree the book teaches not to accuse others without certain knowledge and proof, through the family production of the Hanukkah story it shows how to be inclusive in our celebrations, and how kids belonging to different traditions or different strains of the same tradition can be happy together.

I realize that my little description makes the book sound more educational than it really is. It is, but it is also a fun little detective story with precise descriptions of the lives of 10 year olds.

One of the most melancholic children books I ever read was Eileen Bluestone Sherman’s The odd potato: A Chanukah story. On the second page we learn that the Rachel, the young heroine’s mother has died 18 months earlier and ever since then her father has been depressed. Even the illustration, by Katherine Kahn, shows a man sunk into his armchair, looking unenergetic. The rest of the story revolves around Rachel getting an odd looking potato and turning it into a hannukiah, because she did not find the family menorah, cherished by her mother. By the end, this simple act, finding the beauty and utilizing a simple object to bring light to her home, Rachel manages to cheer up her father as well.

You can read the details about the history of the book, how it was first developed for an Emmy winning TV show, than a storybook, how it turned into a musical, eventually produced on Broadway and since 2005 you can even buy the album of the music. I personally found it a bit bleak, as the children, including Rachel’s younger brother, all looked and sounded sad. Once I learned that it is based on true events that happened during the Great depression, I understood why. Ultimately it is a heartwarming story with a lesson, but because of the subject matter it may not be suitable for the youngest of children.

The subtitle of Sadie Rose Weilerstein’s K’Tonton in the Circus, a Hanukkah Adventure is slightly misleading. Only 8 of the book’s 85 pages are centered on Hanukkah. But that section is well integrated into the rest of the story that details Ktonton’s, a 4 inch tall boy’s adventures, when he was taken to a traveling circus. If you haven’t read any K’tonton book you are in for a treat. Weilerstein teaches Judaism, by intertwining Torah, haggadah, midrash, and even halakhah with other subjects, in this case the life of a circus. The reader learns about both, through the perspective of the boy who keeps kosher, says his prayers and even manages to celeberate Hanukkah with his newfound friends as the first Jewish person amongst them. There is even a reasonable (and Jewish) explanation why he seems so content and not missing his parents terribly. For a while.

A small line drawing of a circus animal by Marilyn Hirsh’s starts off the chapters and she did a half or full page illustration for each of the 15 chapters. The book is not just educational in both areas (Judaism and circus life), but also a great and fun read. Enlightened readers might object to the living conditions and exploitation of the circus animals (and performers for that matter), but you might view the subject matter differently if you remember that it was written almost 30 years ago.

As I mentioned Friday I spent the weekend in San Jose at the annual conference of the California Library Association. If I manage to find the time I plan to write up my impressions and insights on my personal blog. Here I would like to cover only those points that relate to Judaica one way or another.

First of all the keynote speakers for the opening general session were Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman. (See my picture of them below.) As you know Chabon is the Pulitzer Prize winning of author of many novels including “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” and “The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay“. (We just added the latter to our collection.) What you may not know that his wife Ayelet Waldman is an author on her own right, having written 9 novels so far. Together on stage they talked about on what it means and how it works for them on being married to a writer. I admit they didn’t touch on any specifically Jewish topic, but as some of their work relates to it I found worthwhile to mention how delightful their conversation with each other was. They seemed passionate, knowledgeable and likable people. For those of you who liked The Yiddish Policemen’s Union I have good news: The Coen brothers are planning turning it into a movie.

One of the sessions I visited was titled “Cultural Diversity on the Shelves: Authors’ Perspectives on Blending Latinos, Asians, and Others into Children’s Literature.” The panel consisted of five authors, who wrote children books with multicultural characters, plots and/or locations. I went there primarily to listen to the Jewish participant, Susan Goldman Rubin , the one on the right the picture below. She authored many books for young people on arts and artists, such as Matisse, Warhol, Thiebaud, Hopper and Degas. She also wrote six books related to Jewish themes. I purchased one of them for the library and asked her to sign it. “Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin” is a book about the Holocaust for children that is not as terrifying visually as most books with pictures on this topic. The book won eleven prizes including AJL’s “Honor Book in the 2000 Sydney Taylor Book Award for Older Readers.” I am hoping that this book will be borrowed by the children who visit our library.

Ms. Goldman Rubin’s other books include “Searching for Anne Frank: Letters from Amsterdam to Iowa,” L’Chaim! To Jewish Life in America! Celebrating from 1654 until Today,” ” The Flag With Fifty-Six Stars: A Gift From The Survivors of Mauthausen,” “The Cat with the Yellow Star: Coming of Age in Terezin,” “Haym Salomon: American Patriot.” One of her upcoming books, “The Anne Frank Case: Simon Wiesenthal’s Search for the Truth” is about Simon Wiesenthal’s (successful) search for the Nazi officer responsible arresting Anne Frank. Currently she is working on a book about Mengele.

During her 15 minute talk I learned about how she grew up in the Bronx, where she thought that being Jewish is nothing spectacular, but later in life she learned to appreciate the uniqueness of her culture and background. She also shared the organic process how she got involved in writing about Jewish topics. She spoke about the importance of teaching the Holocaust to the younger generations, who have less and less chance to talk to survivors themselves.

The conference had not other Jewish themed panel, but on the exhibition floor I found a few items. There were several companies offering books on CD, tapes or MP3. But only one of them displayed any item of interest for us. Blackstone Audio Inc, has Geraldine Brooks‘ “People of the book“, which is on our discussion group’s schedule. It is a bit pricey, so I haven’t decided whether to purchase it or not. Finally “I’d Bark But You Never Listen: An Illustrated Guide to the Jewish Dog” by Harold Kimmel looked funny.

Living in sunny California it is easy to forget what real winter is about. In this situation Diana Cohen Conway’s Northern Lights: A Hanukkah Story can come to the rescue. In it a Jewish girl is stranded for Hanuakkah in Alaska by the weather and is hosted by an Inuit family. There real cultural exchange happens as she tells them the story of Hanukkah and they share with her bits of their culture, both material and literary. Meanwhile on every page we encounter stunning watercolor paintings by Shelly O. Haas, mostly in light blues and yellows, showing not just the two young girls developing friendship, but attempting to capture the atmosphere of northern lights. It is a simple story, for simple times with simple lesson about the value of multicultural sharing and discovering our similarities.

The Jewish Early Childhood Educators’ Exchange’s discussion and activity suggestion related to this book is below:

This story is a terrific provocation to a discussion and activities about winter nights, light and shadows. Sara tells her friend the story of Chanukah by candlelight using her hands’ shadows as the storytelling tools. Set up an overhead projector in your classroom and encourage the children to experiment with shadows. Use various types of “screens-” the wall, a sheet, butcher paper, etc…. You may also give children different sizes and strengths of flashlights. After children have made discoveries with the flashlights, place different colors of cellophane with the flashlights. See if children create their own Northern lights! See where the children’s excitement leads!

I admit I could barely focus on the narrative of Fran Manushkin’s Latkes and Applesauce: A Hanukkah Story, because the illustrations (by Robin Spowart) were so gorgeous that they grabbed my attention. See the first one below. Even showing a blizzard it using such soft tones and shapes that you can imagine (or not) how warm they are later, when depicting the family around candlelight. After I went through the whole book and admired every one of the paintings I went back and read the story. That is equally beautiful. It is about a poor family, who barely has enough to eat and cannot get out procuring more food, because of the snowstorm. But their generosity extends to a stray cat and dog wondering in to their house. Their good deeds and hearts are rewarded by the end, of course. Suggested age group is 4-8 year olds.

The author explains how she wrote this book on her home page in these words:

Years ago, I came upon a wonderful essay by Cynthia Ozick about the importance of the holiday of Hanukkah. Her excitement inspired me to try writing about the holiday too. Until then, I’d never written any story about Jewish life; I was too intimidated. I had very little Jewish education as a girl, and I thought I needed to be a sage with a long, white beard to contribute to our literature. Happily, doing research about the holiday and reading a lot of Yiddish stories calmed me down and gave me more confidence. I was particularly fascinated by the rabbinic injunction that on Hanukkah we must not mourn or fast. This is what gave me the Judaic theme of the story; my love for cats and dogs and latkes helped me do the rest! In writing LATKES AND APPLESAUCE I discovered my Jewish “voice” for the first time. It is highly influenced by Sholem Aleichem, whose stories I treasure. The character of Mr. Menashe was inspired by a tailor named Shmuel, who appears in one of my favorite books, NUMBER OUR DAYS, by Barbara Meyerhoff.