When Mindy Saved Hanukkah

Here's another charming Hanukkah story by Eric Kimmel. His tales are a nice departure from the run-of-the-mill "story of Hanukkah" or "how to celebrate Hanukkah" books that fill the shelves this time of year. My 5 year old (who liked the Borrowers) enjoyed this tale of a miniature family, and even if he didn't immediately pick up on the parallel between this story and that of the Maccabees (which I thought clever), he liked seeing household items and synagogue artifacts from the perspective of a mouse-sized person, and enjoyed the spirit and joy of the story.

If your children enjoy the Littles or the Borrowers, they'll love the Kleins. They are a tiny family living a big family's home and need to gather supplies for the holiday. There's just one problem...the big family owns a cat!

We have about 10 Channukah books at our house, but none come close to capturing the spirit of this holiday evident in "When Mindy Saved Hanukkah." The story presumes a knowledge of the reason for Channukah-so you still need at least one other good book about the story of Channukah. But this book can stand on its own as an example of heroics, a model of family, and a spirit of giving. My kids love this book and we read it all year long, but because of the well written prose and the wry way the story unfolds, I enjoy it every time, as much as they do. Even more importantly, my kids sort of believe this story and my 3 year old son insists we look for the cat in the sanctuary at our synangogue, since he reasons one must exist in every temple.