When Hannah doesn’t want to move house, her grandmother reminds her that change is often both happy and sad, bitter and sweet. After the move everything feels bitter, but when Shabbat comes, the familiar smell of challah and the glow of the candlelight make the new house begin to seem like home. Soon enough, life starts to feel sweet again and Hannah realises that her grandmother was right.
There are many wonderful things about this book: the language is lyrical, the illustrations are attractive and modern and the story is very relatable, with Jewish life neatly woven into the universal experience of moving somewhere new.
Within the deceptively simple storyline there are important things to talk about with five- and six-year-olds: themes of kindness and resilience, the idea that we have a choice about how we respond to events beyond our control, and the mix of bitterness and sweetness that we find in holidays and rituals throughout the Jewish year.
January 15, 2019