Book Review: "The Chanukkah Guest" by Eric A. Kimmel

Kimmel, Eric A. The Chanukkah Guest. New York: Scholastic Inc. 1988.

This cheery book is about an old woman, Bubba Brayna, who lives in the woods is cooking for Chanukkah and all the guests that are coming over including the Rabbi. Her cooking, including latkes, enticed a bear's sense of smell so he headed towards her house. Bubba Brayna, however, doesn't have a very good ability to hear or see so when the bear shows up to her house she just assumes the bear is the Rabbi and is a bit early. Every time she talked to the "Rabbi" the bear would respond with a grunt, but since she can't hear very well she heard real words. They light the menorah together, play Chanukkah games, and eat all the latkes. After this the bear gets sleepy and Bubba gives him a scarf and sends him on his way wishing him a Happy Chanukkah! A few moments later all the guests show up and the real Rabbi, Bubba is very surprised and told everyone there were no more latkes because the Rabbi ate them all. They explained that it couldn't have been him because he was at the synagogue with the rest. The guests saw all the bear paw prints and figured out what really happened. They had a good laugh and helped Bubba Brayna make more potato latkes!

I though this story was very cute and funny! "The Chanukkah Guest" is a great book and great representative of Jewish literature. It was very authentic and within the text it talked about the certain things that Jewish people take part in during the Chanukkah holiday. Eric Kimmel is an insider author and wrote a great and informative picture book. I think he fit a lot of knowledge withing his pages of work. I also really liked that in the front of the book he included a small glossary of terms that he used in the book to help outsiders understand what he was writing about and what the characters were taking part in. I thought that Bubba Brayna was a very warm and loving character that helped convey the message that everyone deserves a nice Chanukkah!