
Jewish Book Council Review
December 3, 2019
Check it out: Animal picture books are perfect for cozy reading
December 8, 2019Wall Street Journal
BY MEGHAN COX GURDON / DECEMBER 7, 2019
Children’s Books: Hilarity for the Holidays
Sheryl Haft offers a Hanukkah homage to Margaret Wise Brown’s classic picture book “Goodnight Moon” with “Goodnight Bubbala” (Dial, 32 pages, $17.99). In the original, a little rabbit prepares for sleep mostly alone in a “great green room.” In this Yiddish-inflected version, the room is small and blue, and the bubbala we see with a shmatta—that is, the beloved child we see with an old baby blanket—gets swamped by “the whole mishpacha” as all sorts of relations burst in with toys and treats and musical instruments. Jill Weber’s warm, cheery pictures are full of color and humor as they show a large rabbit family noshing on bagels and kneidels, playing with blocks and dreidels and listening to lutes and flutes. In little speech bubbles, the bubbala’s grandparents express pride and pleasure. (“I’m kvelling!”; “I’m all verklempt!”) With a glossary of terms and a recipe for potato latkes from Ina Garten, this charming book will leave readers happy enough to plotz.