Last fall, S and I began baking challah together on Friday afternoons. S loves it, and has been asking for books about challah every time we go to the library for months. S was agnostic about whether these books were actually about challah or just had a picture of challah in them — as mentioned in earlier posts, including images of favorite topics in the background of a story is often enough to capture S’s interest. (Interestingly, however, S was very particular about what the illustrations should look like. Some books were rejected at the outset for having insufficiently “challah-y” challah.)

We recently took out Charlotte Offsay and Jason Kirschner‘s adorable Challah Day! from the library because it is not just a book with pictures of very challah-y challah, but a book about making challah as a family.

S LOVED it. We read it 9 times on the day we took it home. That love has not abated. On an average day, S requests it between 1 and 5 times, often back-to-back-to-back. (“Read it again!”) It’s the kind of book that is such a runaway hit (and so well-written/illustrated) that we will wind up buying it as soon as we have to return our library copy.

Let’s look at what makes Challah Day! an early contender for favorite book of the year:

1. Challah Day! celebrates Shabbat from a toddler POV

Challah Day! shows the importance of not just representation generally, but of representing the cultural traditions that mean the most to kids. The book is a simple, joyful ode to a specific Shabbat tradition — making challah together as a family.

While the story references other Shabbat traditions obliquely, they are not the focus of the story. They are also the exact other traditions that would be meaningful to a young child — lighting candles, drinking grape juice, and spending time with grandparents.

The book is cozy and warm and absolutely spot on for the way S experiences Shabbat — it is the day we make and eat challah (and light candles, drink grape juice, and spend time with grandparents).

I believe that this sort of representation — meeting young kids where they are — is exactly why the book has resonated so much with S.

2. It has short, punchy sentences and colorful, active illustrations

Challah Day! is a joy to read out loud. The sentences are short; the rhyme is bouncy and joyful; and the way the rhyme, punctuation, and page layout breaks things up leads to natural pauses that make it easy for S to focus on what is going on.

At an average of 4.78 words per sentence, it fits squarely into the sweet spot sentence length for S’s attention span.

Charlotte Offsay’s text is complemented perfectly by Jason Kirschner’s illustrations, which have just enough going on to hold S’s interest at all times. This spread is a particular favorite, with the whole family actively eating challah (including the dog!) and bright background colors that S loves to point out.

3. It has multiple toddler hooks

Combining S’s interests is a surefire way to make a book a repeat player. In addition to the carbohydrates discussed at length above, we have at least five more toddler hooks:

1. A baby — S loves pointing out the baby on every page
2. A dog — any addition of animals to a story is a plus, particularly when they are actively involved (here, helping braid challah, etc.)
3. Simple counting — S likes to count along and point out each of the eggs when I get to “Crack the eggs – one, two, three, four”
4. Bubbles — always a favorite; doesn’t matter that these are yeast bubbles and not soap bubbles
5. Family time / a “knock” at the door bringing grandparents over — the knock is a fun change of pace, and the grandparents are additional people for S to point out

I hope you love Challah Day! as much as we do — I have a feeling we will be reading it for a long time!

Challah Day! By the Numbers

Pages: 28 pages plus back matter

Word Count: 244

Words Per Illustration: 6.26

Words Per Sentence: 4.78