By Rita Berman Frischer, Special to the Jewish Sound
Whenever I think I’ve seen every possible spin on a Hanukkah book for kids, something new comes along. Just this morning I was singing “This Land is My Land” with a chorus of ex-hippie contemporaries, so you may understand why I was taken aback this afternoon to receive a copy of illustrator Dave Horowitz’s new picture book, Honeyky Hanukkah (Doubleday Books). It’s based on a little-known Hanukkah song by — you guessed it — Woody Guthrie.
Who knew that Woody, the consummate Okie, lived for seven years in Coney Island, down the street from his mother-in-law, noted Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt? Whether inspired by family love, Friday night suppers at Bubbie’s house, World War II and/or his Brooklyn neighborhood, Guthrie wrote songs celebrating Jewish culture, history, politics, and spiritual life. He even performed Hanukkah songs at local Jewish community centers.
Horowitz, who also illustrated “Five Little Gefiltes” (named an Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Notable Book), uses construction paper, charcoal and colored pencils to expand the book’s brief, breezy text with bright, whimsical, almost Muppet-like pictures. You’ll appreciate the back material, which includes a terrific 1944 picture of Woody and his dancer wife. Kids of any age will enjoy listening to the title song, as performed by the Klezmatics on the attached CD.
Holiday books featuring lost animals in need of nurturing and shelter are not so unusual. However, author Daniel Pinkwater and illustrator Jill Pinkwater are very unusual, and so is their delightful tri-lingual Hanukkah tribute to one of the world’s most motherly chickens, Yetta. In Beautiful Yetta’s Hanukkah Kitten (Feiwel and Friends), Yetta has escaped her fate in the poultry market and joined up with a flock of wild parrots, once pets, who now fly free in Brooklyn. They come to love Yetta, who tells them stories and speaks to them in the Mamaloshen; her speech balloons hold English, Hebrew characters spelling out Yiddish words, and transliterated Yiddish. But, of course, the parrots have their own Mamaloshen: Spanish. They proudly assert, “We love this chicken! She is like our mother. ¡Nos encanta esta gallina! Ella es como nuestra madre.”
The cold winter comes, the birds and Yetta cuddle together, fluffing their feathers for warmth. Then, one night, Yetta hears a tiny meow and cannot ignore the cold, hungry “ketseleh.” When she wraps it in her wings to warm it, the parrots are confused. Isn’t that thing a cat and dangerous? Lots of discussion, both in Yiddish and Spanish, ensue until Yetta spots candles burning in a hanukkiah in the old grandmother’s window. Both she and the parrots decide the “alte boben” — who likes and feeds birds — deserves a lovable gift for Hanukkah. They don’t anticipate the grandmother will be so delighted to have the smart little ketseleh that she will make them all a latke feast. Yum, yum.
Speaking of bubbes and language, Kar-Ben Publishing has two paperback releases that will make nice gifts. Preceded by both of my grandchildren before being called to the Torah myself, I can recommend Isabel Pinson’s Bubbe’s Belated Bat Mitzvah. Illustrations by Valeria Cis, an Argentinian artist, warmly transmit what a special event this is for the whole family. Helped and encouraged by her great-granddaughter, the bubbe in the illustrations was modeled on the author’s mother, who became a Bat Mitzvah in 2012 at age 95! A nice way for girls to learn how things have changed for females since their grandmothers were their age.
Alef is for Abba/Alef is for Imma is a flip Alef/Bet book you can open two ways, changing topic and direction as you follow a father and mother and child through ordinary events. Conceived by Rebecca Kafka and playfully illustrated by Constanza Basaluzzo, each page has a single pertinent word or brief phrase in Hebrew, transliteration and English.
The Dreidel That Wouldn’t Spin: A Toyshop Tale of Hanukkah by Martha Seif Simpson, illustrated by Durga Yael Bernhard, our final Hanukkah title, is from an interesting new publishing house. An offshoot of World Wisdom Publishing, Wisdom Tales was founded to bring high-quality books about other cultures, traditions and religions to young readers and their families. It appears to have special emphasis on Native American cultures, natural science, ethics, world music and education. For the teachers among you, their website offers activity options for many of their titles.
“The Dreidel That Wouldn’t Spin” is indeed a beautiful thing. The toyshop owner has sold it twice, at a good price, but both times it was angrily returned the following day, with complaints that the child for whom it was intended could not make it spin. When an obviously penniless man and his son ask to enter the shop, just to look and delight in the wonderful toys, with no expectations or demands, the shopkeeper is touched. Impulsively, he gives the boy the “broken” dreidel. The child tries the dreidel, it spins wonderfully, and the letters on it mysteriously change: Gimmel becomes Koof and Shin becomes Pay. In line with the imprint’s emphasis on character building, Simpson’s book, without being didactic, has shown that the miracle of Hanukkah cannot be bought and that small miracles can happen anywhere.
May they happen this Hanukkah at your house.