Happy Hanukkat by Jessica Hickman, with illustrations by Elissambura; Minneapolis, Minnesota: Kar-Ben Publishing; © 2025; ISBN 9798765-644010; 12 pages; $9.99; publication date: October 7, 2025.
SAN DIEGO – Please look at the cover illustration by Elissambura. Four different stylized cat breeds are represented playing dreidel. Three are wearing kippot; one is wearing a conical Chanukah cap. All the players have gelt. It’s Hanukkat time, a fanciful melding of Jewish tradition with feline fun.
On the next pages, the cats wear sweaters emblazoned with chanukiyot; they eat latkes, listen to the story of the Maccabees, trying to imagine themselves brandishing swords and Magen David shields; they eat sufganiyot, and even make puns about the holiday.
The Maccabees were pawsitively brave. Hanukkat is a purrfect holiday.
The book is intended for children ages 1 to 4. However, parents and grandparents may delight in it as well.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.