By Pamela Ehrenberg
A joyful, funny Hanukkah where a Jewish-Indian family fries up dosas instead of latkes and a fearless climbing toddler saves the night.
In this family, Mom is Indian and Dad is Jewish, so for Hanukkah they fry dosas, thin Indian rice-and-lentil pancakes, instead of the usual potato latkes. The trouble is the narrator's little sister Sadie, who has just discovered climbing and will scale anything, a tower of coconut-milk cans at the market included. Her big brother keeps her calm with a made-up dosa song sung to the tune of the dreidel song. Then the whole family gets locked out of the house with the dosas still cooking inside, and suddenly Sadie's climbing is exactly the thing that saves Hanukkah.
This is a joyful, giftable Hanukkah book that also happens to show a family many children will recognize, one that blends two cultures at the same table. It's funny, the toddler-who-climbs-everything is a bundle of trouble any family with a little one will know, and the ending turns her exasperating habit into the hero move. There's a real dosa recipe in the back, so a family can cook the book after reading it. For a child from an interfaith or blended family, or for any child who'd enjoy meeting one, it's a warm, food-filled delight.