Joel Edward Stein

An artist named Misha lives in a poor village and struggles to get by. One day, he discovers a cat in his barn that is hungry and weak. Being a kind man, Misha brings the cat inside and shares his food with it, then lets it sleep by the fire. He proclaims the cat to be lucky, and names it Mazel. We soon discover that Misha is Jewish and tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, but Misha is worried that they do not have enough candles to light the menorah. Misha comes up with the idea of painting a menorah instead, and painting a flame on the candles each night. He has just enough paint to last to the final night of Hanukkah. The next night, a traveling merchant named Meyer stops by Misha’s farm looking for items to buy and sell. Meyer notices a painting of Mazel among Misha’s paintings, and then the cat runs to Meyer, who greets it as Goldie. Goldie is Meyer’s cat, and had jumped off his wagon and run off, only to end up in Misha’s barn. Happy to see his cat again, Meyer offers to buy all of Misha’s paintings, as Misha realizes Mazel will have to leave with her owner. But, in the end Meyer asks Misha to care for Mazel, and Misha gets to keep his new companion. This is a very cute Hanukkah book that would be great to read around the holidays regardless of whether there are any Jewish students in your class. The paint lasting just long enough to make the eight flames on the menorah painting mirrors the Hanukkah story of the oil for the lamps lasting eight nights, which is a cute detail. Also “mazel” means luck or fortune in Hebrew, which makes sense as Misha basically is naming the cat Lucky. I think it could definitely help kids have a conversation about culturally diverse holiday practices, such as Hanukkah or Three Kings’ Day.… (altro)