Ellie Gellman

I liked learning about Sukkah through this book. It is a Jewish holiday that I’ve never learned about. The story starts with a little girl in her sukkah, but she feels that there are pieces missing. Throughout the story, she finds different friends to help her complete her sukkah and find all the decorations and food needed to celebrate the holiday. The illustrations helped me understand the story, because I wouldn’t have otherwise known what a sukkah looks like. It also gives some cultural insight into Judaism. “He wanted to put a blessing on his poster, the one to say when you sit in the sukkah, but he couldn’t remember what came after the “Baruch” part.” There are multiple ways to relate to this book: the Jewish holiday, having a different culture, learning more about others, or finding friends and family for help. In the end, nothing is missing from the sukkah. The big idea of the story is that celebrating Sukkah requires help from friends and family, but sharing the festival with others is the most important part!… (mere)

The main idea behind this story is different types of people and families. Jeremy makes a dreidel for his father who is blind while the other children make their own unique dreidels. This book has a section at the back with instructions for creating your own dreidels which is helpful for teachers who may want to use this as a classroom activity. The book teaches children about Hanukkah and about individuals who are blind. The images in the story help depict the text so that children can understand the story even if they do not understand some of the words.… (mere)