By Fran Manushkin
A snowbound family with nothing to fry finds their Hanukkah saved by a stray cat and dog named Latke and Applesauce.
It's the first night of Hanukkah when a blizzard blows in and buries the Menashe family's whole farm, the potato patch and the apple tree along with it. There's nothing to make latkes from and no applesauce to go with them. In the middle of the storm, a shivering stray cat and a lost dog turn up at the door, and even with little to spare, the family takes them both in and names them Latke and Applesauce. The animals become part of the family over the eight nights, and by the end they're the very reason the family finds their food again under the snow.
This is a lovely gift for the animal-loving, tender-hearted child, a warm hug of a Hanukkah book. There's a real worry in it, the storm and the empty pantry, but it's the gentle kind that you know is going to come out right, and the payoff, the animals leading the family to the buried potatoes and the apple tree, lands beautifully. Robin Spowart's soft, snow-hushed pictures make it feel like being tucked under a quilt. It says something true about the holiday too: that you make room and share what little you have, and somehow there ends up being enough.