Review: The Boston Chocolate Party
The Boston Chocolate Party by Tami Lehman-Wilzig and Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz, illustrated by Fede Combi Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House), 2022 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Shirley Reva Vernick Buy at Bookshop.org Joshua Mendes lives in colonial Newport, Rhode Island, where his father imports chocolate beans and teaches café owners how to make hot chocolate as an alternative to the highly taxed tea. It’s Hanukkah—or, as Joshua’s Sephardic family calls it, Janucá—and Joshua is missing his friend Isaac. Isaac has recently moved to Boston with his widowed mother, who is hoping to find work in the city. When Joshua visits Boston and sees how destitute his friend has become, he has a brainstorm. He convinces his father to create a chocolate café in the shed right outside Isaac’s home and hire Isaac’s mother to run it. On the night before the “chocolate house” is to open—which is also the last night of Hanukkah—the Boston Tea Party occurs right outside Isaac’s window. T