Papa's Latkes

Rating:
Summary: A book for everyone
Review: I read *Papa's Latkes* and found myself crying. It's a beautiful book that reads wonderfully aloud. The images are shining and transcendent. The emotions are strong and true. For anyone who has suffered the loss of a parent, it's a book to wrap around you and take comfort from. *Papa's Latkes* is filled with the hope of days when grief lessens and the strength of family.

Rating:
Summary: Papa's Latkes by Michelle Edwards
Review: Michelle Edwards treats us to everything but the actual recipe for latkes in her latest book, "Papa's Latkes" (Candlewick Press).

Two little girls have loving memories of their mother and especially Mama's latkes, now that it's Chanukah-their first one without her. And Papa is determined the holiday will be celebrated as usual.

The girls strive to keep everything the way Mama had it, but sometimes our best isn't good enough. Although the menorah is polished, the tablecloth Mama embroidered with menorahs and dreidels and stars of David is set out, and sour cream, applesauce, and jam are spooned into the green glass bowls Grandma Yetta had carried with her from Poland, there are only three plates on the table now, instead of four.

Will Papa's latkes be "poetry on a platter" the way he announced? Can Chanukah ever be the same?

The richness is, indeed, in the details, and Edwards supplies many family remembrances throughout that touch the heart, while Stacey Schuett, enriches the text with spare but colorful illustrations.(You'll especially love the last double-page spread.)

Edwards walks a fine line here without losing her balance-"Papa's Latkes" is touching without being overpoweringly sad. Close the book and you'll swear you can smell potatoes, onions, and oil.

(A minor point: I think the editor erred in not including a latke recipe. Non-Jewish children reading the book may want their mamas to make them.)

This is a gentle story well done.

Audrey B. Baird, author Storm Coming! and A Cold Snap! (both by Boyds Mills Press, www.boydsmillspress.com) and editor/publisher of Once Upon A Time (http://onceuponatimemag.com), a 32-page national support magazine for writers and illustrators of children's literature.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended tale of family, loss and moving on
Review: Stacey Schuett provides the warm, realistic drawings to this picturebook story of a family facing their first Chanukah without their mother. When their father comes home with a bag of potatoes for latkes, Selma is worried: Mama always made the Chanukah latkes: how can they make them without her? Papa's Latkes is a gently told and highly recommended tale of family, loss and moving on.