A Wealth of Holiday Books For Kids

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Quite some time ago when I first became involved with Jewish libraries, there was not much to choose from in the way of modern secular literature, especially for children. K’tonton was alive and well; the All-of-a-Kind-Family were doing what families did; there were a few laughs as the Chelmites stumbled through life; folktales were here and there.

However, the production values of most children’s books was low; the majority of books were published by a handful of Jewish publishers and had little appeal outside the Jewish world.

Interesting enough, some of these early books were incubators for soon-to-be-famous kidlit stalwarts like Maurice Sendak who did the pictures for Good Shabbos, Everybody, published by United Synagogue.

There was no Kar-Ben,  Milk & Honey , Kalaniot or PJ Library.  Secular publishers produced few Jewish books. The internet wasn’t around to provide sources for telling stories

Choosing children’s books for a Jewish library was a challenge. Book selection primarily meant buying everything unless it was terrible.

And then came an explosion. Kar-Ben Books published quality (mostly) books with Jewish themes, interesting stories with a modern look, and set the pace for secular publishers to let loose scores of authors with books on Jewish topics, some of which, like Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, have become classics in public libraries and have won scores of awards.

Now choosing books for a small Jewish library takes time and care because there are so many worthy books out there from niche publishers like Kalaniot and Apples & Honey to major publishers like Greenwillow, Lerner, and Candlestick. These books use Jewish themes in original ways and in modern settings. They address the realities of today’s Jewish life, including nontraditional Jewish and emerging Jewish communities and families with multi-cultural characters and situations. But modern books also reinterpret old stories including traditional folklore and fairy tales with characters like the Big Bad Wolf.

Here are a few choice items for the Elul holidays; find them in the synagogue or public library.

Barash, Is It Rosh Hashanah Yet? (series)

Cohen, Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride (series)

Ho, Two New Years

Rubinstein, Once Upon an Apple Cake (series)

Basseri, A Turkish Rosh Hashanah

Kimmel, Gabriel’s Horn

Kimmelman, Sam and Charlie (and Sam too!) (series)

Sherron, Big Bad Wolf’s Yom Kippur

Novit, Three Jumps to Sorry

Jules, The Hardest Word

Vo, The Outlaw

Berkowitz, The Moving Box Sukkah

Matula, Mixed-up Mooncakes

Halpern, The Stars Will Be My Night Light

Nambi, The Very Best Sukkah

Hyde, Shanghai Sukkah

Kohuth, Who’s Got the Etrog?

Ofanansky, The Patchwork Torah

Fishman, On Sukkot and Simchat Torah

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