Review: Don't Invite a Bear Inside for Hanukkah
Don't Invite a Bear Inside for Hanukkah
by Karen Rostoker-Gruber, illustrated by Carles Arbat
Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House), 2024
Category: Picture Books
Reviewer: Melissa Lasher
Buy at Bookshop.org
Illustrated in cheerful blues, golds and browns, Don’t Invite A Bear Inside For Hanukkah depicts the worst playdate ever—and how a boy turns the debacle into a treasured holiday memory. Set in a snowy mountain town, a narrator tells the story in a style akin to If You Give A Mouse a Cookie.
Despite the narrator’s warning, a generous boy invites a massive, blundering, hungry bear into his home to celebrate Hanukkah. What could possibly go wrong? Only everything. The bear sends dreidels and candles flying. He eats all the gelt and latkes. Then, unbearably, he rips apart the presents. Oy! The boy banishes the bear.
When guilt sends the boy out after the bear, through the forest, he sees a tree-branch menorah in the bear’s den window. The boy finds himself in a pickle: let bear celebrate alone or invite more chaos into the house? In the end, an outdoor celebration lights the way for a Hanukkah happily every after.
Kids will love this story’s humor, chaos and bear puns; adults will love how the story (bolstered by backmatter) teaches the Jewish tradition of welcoming guests warmly and thoughtfully into a home. Illustrations feature oodles of gorgeous ritual items and traditional holiday foods. The humor and glossary in the back makes this a good holiday read for Jews and non-Jews, and a sweet, fun, wintry read-a-loud.
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Reviewer Melissa Lasher writes contemporary middle grade and picture books about flawed, funny main characters who get in their own way. As a journalist, she contributed to publications such as the San Francisco Chronicle, Runner’s World, and National Geographic Adventure, where she was an editor. Macon, GA-born, north Jersey-bred, and a New Yorker at heart, she lived in San Francisco for ten years before settling in Tennessee with her husband, three kids, and book-eating dog (he thinks fiction is delicious). She’s a reluctant Southerner but will go all Jersey on you if you knock her adopted hometown.
Illustrated in cheerful blues, golds and browns, Don’t Invite A Bear Inside For Hanukkah depicts the worst playdate ever—and how a boy turns the debacle into a treasured holiday memory. Set in a snowy mountain town, a narrator tells the story in a style akin to If You Give A Mouse a Cookie.
Despite the narrator’s warning, a generous boy invites a massive, blundering, hungry bear into his home to celebrate Hanukkah. What could possibly go wrong? Only everything. The bear sends dreidels and candles flying. He eats all the gelt and latkes. Then, unbearably, he rips apart the presents. Oy! The boy banishes the bear.
When guilt sends the boy out after the bear, through the forest, he sees a tree-branch menorah in the bear’s den window. The boy finds himself in a pickle: let bear celebrate alone or invite more chaos into the house? In the end, an outdoor celebration lights the way for a Hanukkah happily every after.
Kids will love this story’s humor, chaos and bear puns; adults will love how the story (bolstered by backmatter) teaches the Jewish tradition of welcoming guests warmly and thoughtfully into a home. Illustrations feature oodles of gorgeous ritual items and traditional holiday foods. The humor and glossary in the back makes this a good holiday read for Jews and non-Jews, and a sweet, fun, wintry read-a-loud.
Are you interested in reviewing books for The Sydney Taylor Shmooze? Click here!
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