I always love Barbara McClintock's work ( )

Educational & fun, but not for me so much. I really don't like Mcclintock's art - the eyes too large for the head, and the head too large for the body, always strike me as creepy. I'm sure plenty of other ppl legitimately love this book. ( )

The Kleins, a family of miniature people living behind the walls of the Eldridge Street Synagogue, were looking forward to Hanukkah! Mama was cooking, and Mindy was teaching her little brother Hillel how the play with the dreidel. But when Papa Klein arrived home in a terrible state - clothing torn, ankle sprained, and no candle for the holiday observations - things looked grim. "Without a candle, it just won't seem like Hanukkah," said Mama Klein. So Mindy, determined to save the Festival of Lights for her family, set out to retrieve the candle, crossing the massive synagogue, and braving its dangerous cat to do so...

Any reader, young or old, who enjoys tales of little people - Mary Norton's The Borrowers, John Peterson's The Littles - will thrill to this adventurous holiday story! I myself was immediately reminded of another Jewish tale featuring miniature people, Sadie Rose Weilerstein's The Adventures of K'Ton Ton, an association only reinforced later in the story, when the Kleins are visited by a number of other tiny families - the Pequeños, the Littles, and the Katans. Get it? "katan" is the Hebrew word for small, just as "pequeño" is the Spanish one, something that is made clear in the brief glossary.

Eric Kimmel's engaging text here is paired with Barbara McClintock's fabulous watercolor, ink and gouache illustrations, which accentuate the excitement of Mindy's adventures, and the warmth of her home and family life, and the result is an immensely appealing picture-book. Highly recommended - I thank my friend Chandra for putting me onto this one! ( )