According to the authors’ note to parents and teachers, the Kushners address the often unspoken questions of young children who hear about God in church. This multicultural, nondenominational, and non-sectarian attempt poses three questions: “Where is God?,” “What does God look like?,” and “How does God make things happen?” There are various answers to these questions, ranging from images such as God “is in the first ripening tomato, and in cookies just fresh from the oven,” to the ideas that God is “wherever we let God in.” In answer to what God looks like, the authors write, “God looks like nothing,” but there are many things people cannot see and yet they know they are there. The premise being that God is in every aspect of life and that God makes things happen through people’s acts of caring about each other and their community. There is no mention of prayer, houses of worship, or any of the traditional forms of religious life. Majewski’s illustrations are bright and sunny, depicting families of color, the young, the old, in the US, and in a few world communities. The picture-book format is appropriate to the very young child, but the text, although simple, may have concepts more easily understood by older children. Parents who believe that God is within all aspects of the spiritual and temporal world may find this book helpful as a discussion starter, but it’s not much more than that. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-58023-092-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Jewish Lights
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
Better stories about Hanukkah abound.
A family of latkes prepares for Hanukkah.
The members of the Latke family are all potato pancakes, even their dog, Applesauce. As Hanukkah approaches, daughter Lucy greets readers while her parents fry jelly doughnuts, her older brother holes up in his room being a teenager, and Grandpa disrupts the holiday by offering up an alternate spelling: “CHHA-nukah!” Applesauce explains that both can be correct. The usual celebrations continue, with all participating except for the teenager. And then Grandpa commences to tell the story of the holiday with his own twist. It was not the Maccabees who fought for freedom, it was bees: “MEGA-BEES!” Applesauce tries to correct this version, but Grandpa continues. The enemy was not Antiochus: It was “ALIEN POTATOES FROM PLANET CHHHHH!” And while the Maccabees were low on oil, the Mega-Bees are low on honey. Also in this revised account is a giant dreidel that calls to mind the Trojan horse and from which the Mega-Bees emerge to “[mash] those tater tyrants into tatters.” Add the usual ingredients and you have, of course, “POTATO LATKES!” Silverberg’s narration brings to mind a Borscht Belt routine that may be appreciated by some adult readers but is just as likely to cause confusion among its audience. His digital illustrations depict latkes that resemble brown blobs and only add to the general muddlement.
Better stories about Hanukkah abound. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47912-9
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A warm, cozy and loving depiction of shared culinary traditions around an inviting table.
Neighbors join together to celebrate a holiday.
Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, brings a wonderful aroma to an urban apartment house. All the neighbors stop their activities and happily sniff the air as one door opens and everyone enters to feast on cholent. And what makes this dish so delicious? An Italian neighbor says tomatoes. Barley, says the Korean neighbor. Potatoes, says the family from India. No, it is beans, says the Spanish family. Goldie, a contemporary hostess, explains that cholent is a dish that her grandmother served on Shabbat, and that is what makes it taste special. Then, one Saturday, there is no wafting aroma, because Goldie is sick. Things go awry until the neighbors troop up the stairs with Indian potato curry, Korean barley tea, Italian pizza, and Spanish beans and rice. Goldie is happy because she can share a Shabbat meal. A recipe for vegetarian cholent is appended, but it’s too bad there is no note about the origins of the dish, a slow-cooked stew prepared before Shabbat when lighting a fire is not permitted. Also, “chik chak,” Hebrew for “quickly,” can be inferred but is not translated. Brooker’s oil paint and collage art presents a richly textured assortment of folk and apartments.
A warm, cozy and loving depiction of shared culinary traditions around an inviting table. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5528-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
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