When Mindy Saved Hanukkah (Scholastic Bookshelf) (ISBN 0439769906)

Amazon.com Review:
The Klein family--little people reminiscent of The Borrowers--live behind the walls of the famous Eldridge Street Synagogue in New York City at the turn of the century. On the day before Hanukkah, Papa ventures out to "borrow" a candle from the synagogue so it can be melted down into tiny candles for the family's miniature menorah. What a disaster! The synagogue's new cat ("a fierce Antiochus of a cat!" Papa claims) pounces on him, leaving him wounded and shaken. How will the Kleins obtain a holiday candle with this killer cat on the loose? Despite the borrowing of a familiar premise (little folks furtively living among humans), award-winning author Eric A. Kimmel (Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins) offers a playful and original springboard for introducing children to the characters, historical landmarks, and symbols of Judaism. For example, when young Mindy volunteers to save Hanukkah (risking an encounter with the cat), she climbs a "lulav" (a palm branch left over from Sukkot) in order to find the candles. When Mindy's wee grandfather saves her from the cat's claws, he is compared to Maccabee, the leader who recaptured Jerusalem from the Greeks. Barbara McClintock's old-fashioned black ink and watercolor paintings, evocative of turn-of-the-century book illustrations, are the perfect accompaniment to this lively, suspenseful tale. (Click to see a sample spread. Text copyright ©1998 by Eric A. Kimmel. Illustrations copyright ©1998 by Barbara McClintock. Permission by Scholastic Press.) (Ages 3 to 8) --Gail Hudson

A great Channukah book you will enoy reading to your kids.:
We have about 10 Channukah books at our house, but none come close to capturing the spirit of this holiday evident in "When Mindy Saved Hanukkah." The story presumes a knowledge of the reason for Channukah-so you still need at least one other good book about the story of Channukah. But this book can stand on its own as an example of heroics, a model of family, and a spirit of giving. My kids love this book and we read it all year long, but because of the well written prose and the wry way the story unfolds, I enjoy it every time, as much as they do. Even more importantly, my kids sort of believe this story and my 3 year old son insists we look for the cat in the sanctuary at our synangogue, since he reasons one must exist in every temple.

Great holiday story:
Here's another charming Hanukkah story by Eric Kimmel. His tales are a nice departure from the run-of-the-mill "story of Hanukkah" or "how to celebrate Hanukkah" books that fill the shelves this time of year. My 5 year old (who liked the Borrowers) enjoyed this tale of a miniature family, and even if he didn't immediately pick up on the parallel between this story and that of the Maccabees (which I thought clever), he liked seeing household items and synagogue artifacts from the perspective of a mouse-sized person, and enjoyed the spirit and joy of the story.

Even the tiniest people need to celebrate Hanukkah...:
If your children enjoy the Littles or the Borrowers, they'll love the Kleins. They are a tiny family living a big family's home and need to gather supplies for the holiday. There's just one problem...the big family owns a cat!