» gif t gu id e 20 1 7
Eight
Chanukah
Books
FRANCINE MENKEN
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Queen of the
Hanukkah Dosas
PAMELA EHRENBERG
ILLUSTRATED BY ANJAN SARKAR
(FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX; 2017)
Children will learn what a fried dosa is by
reading this delightful Chanukah story
about a family who blends their Indian culture with the holiday traditions
(Mom’s Indian; Dad’s Jewish). Sadie’s older brother — who thinks she
climbs too much — attends Hebrew school and learns the dreidel song,
changing the words to lure Sadie from climbing everywhere. When the
family is invited to a Chanukah celebration, everyone gets locked out —
but Sadie saves the day using her climbing skills. Bright end papers show
unique Indian ingredients used to make the food. Ages: 4-7.
Th e Missing Letters:
A Dreidel Story
RENEE LONDNER
ILLUSTRATED BY IRYNA BODNARUK
(KAR-BEN PUBLISHING; 2017)
The dreidel letters Nun, Hey and Shin
come alive in this fanciful picture book.
Jealous of the Gimels, which always
win, the others propose to get rid of
the Gimels in the dreidel maker’s shop.
The dreidel maker is overheard saying
that all the dreidel letters are important
and special, explaining the importance of the dreidel during the time of the
Maccabees when Jews were not allowed to study Torah and the game of dreidel
was their cover. The dreidel letters realize just in time that they need to return
the Gimels so the dreidel maker can complete the dreidels. The dreidel game is
explained on the back page. Ages: 4-9.
continued on page 48
December 7 • 2017
jn
A new children’s book tells
of the historic knish.
ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
O
A librarian in the know
shares her favorite kids’
books for Chanukah —
both new and classic.
46
Delicious Knishes
nce upon a time in New York City’s Lower East Side, Jewish
immigrants from Eastern Europe sold knishes from push-
carts and little knisheries.
That was more than 100 years ago, but still today, those round
dumplings filled with cheese, kasha or potatoes are a staple in deli-
catessens. Author Joanne Oppenheim was fascinated with the pop-
ularity of those delicious noshes from way back then and wanted
kids today to know about them.
So she wrote The Knish War on Rivington Street (Albert
Whitman), which was just published in August. The story, which
is based on true events that happened in 1916, tells about Benny
and his family, who have a successful baked knish business on
Rivington Street.
People waited in line to buy Benny’s family knishes — and at 5
cents a knish, it was a real bargain. Then, the Tisch family opens
a store across the street and start selling square, fried knishes.
A knish war ensues and prices drop, signs are made, raffles are
created, street music is played — anything to sway customers
to buy from them. The mayor comes for a visit, and he couldn’t
decide which kind he liked better — round or square? Baked or
fried? Eventually
the rivals had a truce
E
and Ri
Rivington Street was called the Knish
Capital
Capita of the World.
Oppenheim,
who was born and raised
Opp
in New
Ne York’s Catskill Mountains in the
Borsch
Bors Belt, lives in New York City — she
got the
t idea to write the book after she
heard
hea a lecture about the history of
knishes.
kni
“I
“ was at an event at the Brooklyn
Historical
Society and a woman called
Hi
‘The
‘T Knish Lady’ was talking about the
knish
kn war on Rivington Street,” she
says.
“I went to the archives and read
s
about
it in a New York Times article
a
written
in January 1916.”
w
Although her book is very enter-
taining,
her hope is to convey the mes-
tain
sage that competition is OK, and you don’t have to be the
best as there is always more than one way of doing something. She
also wanted to capture pictures of what life was like at another
time — which Jon Davis’ illustrations charmingly achieve.
At the end of her book, Oppenheim added a recipe for knishes. “I
mentioned to the editor it would be great to include a recipe — so
I had to learn how to make them at home,” she says. “I had to look
up recipes and adapt them and make them my own. With begin-
ner’s luck, I think they turned out to be delicious.”
Oppenheim has written more than 50 books for and about kids,
including The Prince’s Bedtime and The Prince’s Breakfast. She co-
founded, along with her daughter, the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio
(toyportfolio.com), where they review children’s products and
became contributors on NBC’s Today Show.
According to Oppenheim, when she began writing the book she
knew that kids are more familiar with bagels, but she wanted her
book to be about a Jewish food perhaps not so widely known. “I
wanted kids to understand what a knish was,” she says. “And who
knows — maybe knishes will have a rebirth.” •