Hanukkah falls to the background in this slight story of a medical annoyance.
Is there any help for a bad case of Hanukkah hiccups?
Alas! Poor Hannah cannot stop hiccupping. Unfortunately, it is Hanukkah, and Hannah is busy practicing her solo performance for a recital at her Jewish school. Her family offers remedies, but none work. Her doctor gives her a brown paper bag to breathe into. Her neighbors, a diverse assembly, provide various folk cures. Mr. Taylor, who’s black, urges her to drink “pickle juice backward.” A Mexican-American neighbor tells Hannah to count to 10 in Spanish and place a “wet, red string on her forehead.” Other neighbors offer remedies, some obviously culturally specific and some less so. None of these rid her of the hiccups. In the meantime, she and her family light the candles each night and prepare and eat latkes. Still hiccupping, Hannah does manage to perform a tap-dance solo in front of a diverse audience, and her success will make readers wonder why she was so anxious. (Whether tap-dancing was a last-minute idea to conceal the hiccups or not is unclear.) Finally, on the eighth night of the holiday, as all the neighbors stop by for a feast of lox, latkes, and pickles: no more hiccups. Digitized illustrations are rendered primarily in red, gray, and black and resemble markers. Hannah, who has a huge mass of black curly hair, is paper-white, as is her family.
Hanukkah falls to the background in this slight story of a medical annoyance. (note for families) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68115-537-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Apples & Honey Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Low-key and gentle; a book to be thankful for.
Spinelli lists many things for which people are thankful.
The pictures tell a pleasing counterpoint to this deceptively simple rhyme. It begins “The waitress is thankful for comfortable shoes. / The local reporter, for interesting news.” The pictures show a little girl playing waitress to her brother, who playacts the reporter. The news gets interesting when the girl trips over the (omnipresent) cat. As the poem continues, the Caucasian children and their parents embody all the different roles and occupations it mentions. The poet is thankful for rhyme and the artist, for light and color, although the girl dancer is not particularly pleased with her brother’s painterly rendition of her visual art. The cozy hotel for the traveler is a tent for the siblings in the backyard, and the grateful chef is their father in the kitchen. Even the pastor (the only character mentioned who is not a family member) is grateful, as he is presented with a posy from the girl, for “God’s loving word.” The line is squiggly and energetic, with pastel color and figures that float over white space or have whole rooms or gardens to roam in. Both children, grateful for morning stories, appear in a double-page spread surrounded by books and stuffed toys as their mother reads to them—an image that begs to be a poster.
Low-key and gentle; a book to be thankful for. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-310-00088-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
Visually appealing but doesn’t capture the spirit of namaste.
What does it mean to say namaste?
This picture book attempts to explain this traditional, formal greeting used in South and Southeast Asia to welcome people and bid them farewell—in particular, as a way to show respect to elders. A child with dark hair, dark eyes, deep-brown skin, and a bindi on their forehead goes to a market with their caregiver and buys a potted plant to give their lonely, lighter-skinned neighbor. Vibrant, textured illustrations depict a blossoming friendship between the little one and the neighbor, while a series of statements describe what namaste means to the child. However, the disjointed text makes the concept difficult for young readers to grasp. Some statements describe namaste in its most literal sense (“Namaste is ‘I bow to you.’ " “Namaste is joining your palms together”), while others are more nebulous (“A yoga pose. A practice.” “Namaste calms your heart when things aren’t going right”). The lack of backmatter deprives readers of the cultural context and significance of this greeting as well as knowledge of the countries and cultures where it is used. Moreover, the book doesn’t convey the deep respect that this greeting communicates. The absence of culturally specific details and the framing of namaste as a concept that could apply to almost any situation ultimately obscure its meaning and use. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Visually appealing but doesn’t capture the spirit of namaste. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1783-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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