Grandma's Latkes

Molly and her grandmother make latkes together in this engaging and educational Hannukah story, in which cooking is combined with history. Picking up some useful kitchen tips - like fishing broken eggshells out of a bowl with another piece of egg shell - Molly also learns the ancient story of the

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Maccabees and their revolt against Antiochus, as well as the miracle which occurred in the temple, after the tyrant was overthrown. Grandma's delicious recipe (with instructions to get an adult to help) is included at the rear.

I found Grandma's Latkes to be an enjoyable family holiday story, one that features a warm grandmother-granddaughter relationship, and appealing woodcut illustrations. My two-fold caveat in recommending it would be 1) grandma tells Molly that the ancient Jews, although they didn't have Hanukkah, cultivated and ate potatoes, which is difficult to imagine, as they were native to South America, and weren't introduced to the rest of the world until after 1492 (this sort of mistake, although small, always bothers me); and 2) the description of the beginning of the Maccabean revolt has Mattathias murdering, not just the soldier sent to tempt him with pork, but the "grubby man" who considers eating pork himself. Although I understand the historical context, having such an event depicted in such an unquestioningly heroic fashion was a little troubling to me. I guess we're meant to understand that he's a (grubby) traitor, and that that is what one does with traitors? In any case, leaving these two issues aside, I do think this was otherwise a sweet little story, and recommend it (with the caveat that adults should discuss some of the issues with young readers) to those looking for family stories at Hanukkah.

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