100 books like Queen of the Hanukkah Dosas

There are so few young adult novels that demonstrate positive relationships between Muslim kids and Jewish kids. This one succeeds masterfully.

The main characters in the story come from very different backgrounds and seem to share little in common. Their friendship grows slowly, and eventually they learn to trust one another. This story shows both the risks and rewards of such a friendship. With taking risks, there can be no reward.  

Ruth Behar writes for both adults and children and is a multi-award-winning writer and a Cuban-American Anthropologist. She’s also Jewish with Ashkenazi and Sephardic roots. Based on the author’s real experiences, we follow ten-year-old Ruthie and her family who are recent Jewish-Cuban immigrants trying to make a new home in 1960s Queens, NY after Castro comes to power. Just as Ruthie is adjusting to school and making new friends, a devastating car accident puts her in a body cast for a year. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking, and inspiring story. I particularly loved her friendship with recent Indian immigrant, Ramu, who has to endure a terrible family tragedy as well. There are some heavy themes here, but Ruthie’s innocent, bright, and brave voice brings the reader along in a hopeful way. There’s some great food (like guava pastries, flan, and samosas) mentioned here, too. 

Just the title alone makes me excited because if I had a Bat Mitzvah (I didn’t), this is what I might have wanted to call it! It’s a heartfelt and funny middle-grade novel about a girl named Tara Feinstein with a white Jewish father and an Indian American mother who is preparing for her upcoming Bat Mitzvah. I like the way the themes of intersectionality are layered with classic middle-school concerns--friends, crushes, parental pressure, and how she figures out who she is in the midst of so many things changing all at once. The questions Tara is asking, how to be part of both sides of her family and still stay true to who she is, deeply resonated with me, but I think many middle-schoolers regardless of their background would connect in different ways. Part of the value of the book is that it is so widely relatable and yet… show more.

As with all things Michael Jackson, everything is complicated. Mira Jacob, who is the American-born daughter of East Indian parents, and who is now married to a Jewish man, begins her graphic memoir with her dilemma over her six-year-old son’s obsession with the pop star. So launches a mother’s struggle to understand and explain, both to self and son and reader, the role that skin color has played in her American life—in fact the nuances between the varying degrees of pigmentation—as well as ethnicity, gender, race, religion. In a world where physical appearance has been paramount for our author, it’s fitting that this story is told through pictures. 

A Turn for Noah is a Hanukkah story written by Susan Remick Topek. At preschool, Noah can’t quite spin the dreidel. Hanukkah is about to end, and still Noah “can’t do it.” With the encouragement of his teacher and all his friends, on the very last day of Hanukkah, Noah takes a deep breath, twists the handle quickly, and exclaims, “It’s spinning!” And since one good turn deserves another, Noah lights the Hanukkah candles with the teacher’s help. 

I particularly like A Turn for Noah because so many of my preschool students have trouble learning to spin a dreidel and the story shows how with effort, even difficult tasks can be completed. Little children identify with Noah's efforts, feelings, and his success.

This interracial, bi-religious couple expresses the joy of sharing holiday traditions in a book that is a collaboration on text and art, as well as in spirit.

As one of the parents of an interfaith family, I’ve found it very rare to see a book that embraces this reality so vivaciously.

Alko and Qualls present a family that approaches the holidays in a more integrated manner than mine does, still the main message is one of exuberant celebration encouraging interfaith kids to embrace their dual heritage.

Vibrantly illustrated descriptions of how Sadie and her family celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. They sing "Silent Night" and “I have a little dreidel,” and the father shows how to make latkes and a special kugel dressing for the turkey. The family’s two holiday traditions are highlighted with eye-catching illustrations.

The illustrations are bright and cheery and the family’s traditions are succinctly described. Includes a recipe for cranberry kugel.

There are so many Hanukkah books, but I especially like this one because it has the unique concept of showing how the holiday is celebrated on opposite sides of the globe.

Noah, who lives in New York, is getting ready for winter break, but his cousin Nora in New Zealand is about to start her summer vacation. They decide to have a contest to compare who has the best time celebrating the eight days and nights of Hanukkah.

I love the charming split-page illustrations that show how their days are different, but that they both light candles eat latkes and sufganiyot, sing songs, say prayers, play dreidel, and get presents in the evening. How wonderful to see that the holiday is universal, no matter where you live!

I always recommend this genius book as a wonderful companion to my own Hanukkah book. The young audience is always one step ahead of the old woman in Kimmel’s story, and this engages them from the start all the way through to the comforting end. There’s an old-fashioned folktale-like quality to this story which makes it a sure winner!

So many Hanukkah books are super serious. I love the way Leslie Kimmelman cleverly uses wordplay to expand the story of the 8 nights of the holiday into something completely unexpected and uproariously funny. The book obviously references a Jewish holiday, but the story will have broad appeal to children of all religious backgrounds and children living in strictly secular households too.