5 New Joyous Jewish Holiday Children’s Books!
Written By Savvy Auntie Staff Writers
By: Maya Listman
Aside from being great gifts to bring to a holiday meal with children, reading books with nieces and nephews is a great way to spend “QualAuntie Time” this Jewish High Holiday season. This year’s collection of best new holiday books curated by the JTA will take you and the children on adventures around the world, from farms to cities, and from Antarctica to Shanghai.
Penguin Rosh Hashanah (Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod, ages 3-6)
Start the Jewish New Year off right with this story of a penguin who sometimes finds it hard to do the right thing. The lack of apple trees and honeybees in Antarctica makes for an interesting holiday.
Time to Start a Brand New Year (Rochel Groner Vorst, ages 2-5)
Get ready for a traditional holiday with a haredi (very strictly Orthodox) family prepping for Rosh Hashanah. From apple picking, to harvesting honey, to hearing the shofar, this colorful and rhyming book will help nieces and nephews explore the Jewish New Year as a family.
Talia and the Very Yum Kippur (Linda Elovitz Marshall, ages 4-8)
At her grandparents’ farm for Yom Kippur, Talia sets a funny series of events into motion when she misunderstands a few words. Grandma comes to the rescue and explains that on Yom Kippur, people pray, fast and ask for forgiveness for any wrongdoings. Bonus: there’s a kugel recipe in the back of the book.
Tamar’s Sukkah (Ellie B. Gellman, ages 3-8)
A cheerful story that emphasizes simple living, gratitude, and welcoming friends and strangers, “Tamar’s Sukkah” tells the tale of a girl on a mission to make her plain family sukkah just right. She calls on the other neighborhood children to help her and at the end they admire their handiwork.
Shanghai Sukkah (Heidi Smith Hyde, ages 5-9)
This Sukkot story depicts the experiences of a family that fled Nazi Germany to Shanghai in the early 1930s. Eager to celebrate Sukkot, Marcus and his Jewish pals, helped by their new friend Liang, build a simple rooftop sukkah. Disappointed that the decorations feel too plain, Liang invites Marcus to the Chinese Moon Festival, China’s traditional autumn harvest festival, to cheer him up. Marcus discovers a deeper meaning to the holiday.
Published: September 11, 2015