Do we need anoth­er juve­nile Hanukkah book? The answer is defin­i­tive­ly yes, in the case of this love­ly new dog-cen­tric book which gives a unique per­spec­tive on the hol­i­day. An adorable new­ly adopt­ed pup­py has been res­cued from an ani­mal shel­ter on the first night of Hanukkah and joins all his new fam­i­ly’s cel­e­bra­tions. Latke man­ages to con­tin­u­ous­ly behave some­what inap­pro­pri­ate­ly, think­ing the deli­cious treats on the table and counter are for him, and the presents are his to unwrap. For­tu­nate­ly, despite this, he is treat­ed with lots of affec­tion by his new fam­i­ly. Hop­ing he won’t be sent back to the ani­mal shel­ter, he tries to improve his behavior. 

Many sym­bols of the hol­i­day appear in the col­or­ful and age-appro­pri­ate illus­tra­tions: donuts, meno­rah, gifts wrapped in Jew­ish star wrap­ping paper, latkes, drei­dels, apple­sauce, can­dles, and choco­late mon­ey abound. The illus­tra­tor loves to draw fox­es and dogs, and she con­veys warm feel­ings toward the sen­si­tive pet. The Hebrew suf­ganiy­ot is used to describe donuts and the Yid­dish words gelt and latkes also appear. On the page fol­low­ing the sto­ry there is a para­graph detail­ing the his­to­ry and cus­toms of Hanukkah. 

This sweet hol­i­day sto­ry, told with humor, is per­fect for the youngest lis­ten­er through begin­ning read­er. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 3 – 7.