Children’s books that celebrate the holidays
I did not celebrate holidays with my Petaluma grandparents. As immigrants, they’d left religion behind in the old country when they came to a new one. And besides, there were just too many cousins to fit into a small midcentury bungalow.
With our grandkids, it’s different. They get Christmas with grandparents in Seattle and Marin County, and Hanukkah with us in San Francisco, doubledipping when it comes to gifts. And for the kids in a short stack of new picture books, grandparents are players in yearend celebrations that, taken together, honor many cultural traditions and intergenerational bonds.
For nearly 50 years, audiences have gloried in Christmas Revels, a joyful theatrical celebration of the winter solstice in music, dance and words. One particular poem, central to that canon, is presented here with gouache paintings, dark and earthy. Though sober, they amply accommodate the delight of Northern European peoples “through all the ‘frosty ages,’ ” reveling in the promise of returning light. Pictured are the likes of Neolithics, Norsemen and today’s kids, along with their fires, evergreens and candles of the season. (A menorah and Christmas tree decorate one room together.) Usually recited in sonorous voice at December concerts, this majes
tic ode to cyclical change now inhabits a slim, familyfriendly book. Lucky kids just might hear Gramps (or Gram) read it aloud by the hearth.
“Goodnight Bubbala: A Joyful Parody” By
Sheryl Haft; illustrated by Jill Weber (Dial; 32 pages; $17.99; ages 5-8)
The famed “Goodnight Moon” invites imitation, some even Xrated. Here, the classic turns to seasonal shtick. The great green room and its hush are replaced by a small blue room that fills with extended family for Hanukkah. Oldster bubbies and zeydes parade across bustling pages, done up in the original style. Throughout, Yiddish words pepper the telling. There’s kvelling and kvetching, bagels and dreidels, and a final “Gey shlofn,” my own grandmother’s “go to sleep” imperative. A glossary defines more than two dozen words, many like “mensch” now accepted in Scrabble. Nostalgia runs deep in this holiday takeoff. Perhaps grandparents will share it with their thoroughly assimilated grandkids to recapture memories of a mostly lost Yiddishkeit world. (Food maven Ina Garten provides the obligatory latke recipe.)
“Between Us and Abuela: A Family Story From the Border”
By Mitali Perkins; illustrated by Sara Palacios (FSG; 40 pages; $17.99; ages 3-6)
La Posada Sin Fronteras is celebrated on the San DiegoTijuana border. For one day, families gather on either side for a sadly modernday take on Mexico’s famed Christmas festival. No border crossings allowed. Within this callous context, the Bay Area’s Perkins and Palacios create a highspirited but dispiriting tale. The focus is on Maria, who travels south by bus to meet Abuela, who travels north on foot. It’s been five years! Also in the mix, Mama and little brother Juan. Matteroffact are descriptions of the visit, conducted through a cyclone fence. Only fingertips can be kissed and small gifts passed through the holes. Almost defying credibility, two U.S. guards allow Maria’s clever plan to gift Abuela with something larger. Those final scenes feel triumphant, temporarily downplaying the absence of humane border control.
“Freedom Soup” By Tami Charles; illustrated by Jacqueline Alcántara (Candlewick; 32 pages; $16.99; ages 5-9)
“Nothing in this world is free, not even freedom.” With that truism, TiGran frames her annual account of the Haitian Revolution for granddaughter Belle, narrator of this exuberant celebration of family, history and cuisine. The first day of January is Haitian Independence Day, marking the end of slavery and French rule in 1804. (Remember leader Toussaint Louverture?) Freedom Soup is a menu must. Multimedia art bursts with color, music and movement as TiGran and Belle add ingredients to the pot — epis (a marinade), herbs, spices, veggies, stock and meats. (There are instructions, of course.) Inside their apartment, it’s warm and crowded with cousins, uncles and aunts. Outside it’s snowy and still — an American city where, despite growing obstacles, immigrants still come and add to our country’s cultural mosaic.
“Fry Bread: A Native American Family
Story” By Kevin Noble Maillard; illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal (Roaring Brook; 48 pages; $18.99; ages 3-6)
In kids books, Native Americans often occupy the past, perhaps as fierce warriors or innocent victims. “Fry Bread” offers something completely different and most welcome — a hearty portrait of a contemporary, intergenerational family, viewed through the lens of a beloved bread. Short verses expansively enumerate what fry bread is— shape, sound, color, flavor, time, art, history, place, nation and “us.” Rolypoly folks populate lovely spreads that exude love. Grandparents and holidays (powwows and festivals) are seen as links to diverse tribal cultures. A thoughtful author’s note lays out some essential concepts — that not all Indians think or look alike, that removal and displacement are not over, and that Native Americans are not a vanished people. Recipe also included.