The Miracle of the Potato Latkes: A Hanukkah Story [Library Binding]

Malka Penn (Author), Giora Carmi (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1994

In a joyful story filled with miracles, Tante Golda believes "God will provide," even when she has only one potato left to make her famous, delicious potato latkes for all the guests on the first night of Hanukkah.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Penn's original story has the flavor of a folktale; set in Russia, it tells of the lean year in which Tante Golda's traditional Hanukkah party is threatened. With only one puny potato in her wooden barrel, how can she invite all her friends and neighbors to her annual latke feast? "God will provide," she always says, and, following her generosity to a mysterious stranger, it appears that He does. The rough-hewn, earthy illustrations match the homespun heroics. Recipe included. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 5-8. Reinforcing the idea of Hanukkah as a celebration of miracles, Penn gives us a particularly fanciful version of the holiday legend in which a small amount of oil for the menorah lasted for eight days. In Penn's story, it's potatoes, not oil, that are in short supply. Every year at Hanukkah time, Tante Golda removes eight potatoes from her barrel to make the "most delicious latkes in all of Russia," which she shares with all her friends. When a drought leaves her with only one potato at holiday time, she's unable to have her traditional feast. Instead, she shares her only potato with a beggar, a good deed that causes Tante Golda's luck to change. The book's layout--the text is set in ruled columns, and there are odd chunks of unused white space--is distracting. However, the plot is well devised and recounted with verve, and Carmi's illustrations, with their subdued colors and broad, visible brush strokes, effectively evoke a hardscrabble, Eastern European atmosphere, ripe for wondrous things to occur. Tante Golda's latke recipe rounds things out. Stephanie Zvirin

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 1 pages
• Publisher: Holiday House; 1st edition (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823411184
• ISBN-13: 978-0823411184
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,526,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Our Family's Favorite Hanukkah Story, January 12, 2001

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Mark Twain "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" (zoon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Miracle of the Potato Latkes: A Hanukkah Story (Library Binding)

So, what if there is a drought and potatoes are scarce? Tante Golda makes the best latkes in all of Russia! But this year, instead of hosting her usual latke party on the first night of Hanukkah, she can only share the few latkes she can make from one potato with a beggar who appears at her door. Discouraged but still giving, Tante Golda says the Lord will provide.

This warm tale of a kind woman whose generosity shines during a time of deprivation tells a different kind of miracle tale. Give your children a taste of old Czarist Russia and the characters that people Tante Golda's town. Then mix up a batch of latkes yourself and enjoy: the recipe, in case you need one, follows the story.