Possibly the best-ever picture-book doughnuts are featured in Hanukkah Hippity-Hop by Barbara Kimmel (Kar Ben, £8.99) illustrated by Ana Zurita, in which rhyming text encourages under-fives to copy the actions of beaming children as they march like a Maccabee, jump like a latke in a sizzling pan, twirl like a dreidl and wiggle like candle flames. Solidly traditional festival fun.
A talmudic tale is the inspiration for The Midnight Mitzvah by Ruth Horowitz (Barefoot Books, £7.99). Hanina Chipmunk loves using her talent at gathering nuts to help other woodland animals. Everyone is grateful for her donations… except old Mathilda Squirrel. When it’s explained to Hanina that Mathilda is too proud to accept charity, Hanina has the idea to leave a secret nocturnal gift. But the woods after dark are dangerous for a little rodent. How will she fare when she meets – an owl? Jenny Meilihove’s illustrations builds a delightful but never twee woodland world, its homes furnished with tiny shoes, teacups and pot plants; its landscapes swept by the wings of an enormous owl. Age up to seven.
The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin (Rock the Boat, £7.99) is not the only recent children’s book centred on the wartime codebreaking centre, but it finds an original, suspenseful angle. Lizzie and Jakob’s mum is missing, believed killed in Poland. Now Jakob is working at Bletchley and Lizzie is on the run from her domineering American grandma’s attempts at transatlantic evacuation. Spirited sleuth Lizzie is determined to find her mum, who she’s certain is alive (and not a spy for the Nazis, as some claim). With entertaining glimpses of real historic figures and mind-stretching explanations of Enigma and other codes, The Bletchley Riddle is an intelligent page-turner. Age nine up.
Thinking of throwing out your last dregs of Rosh Hashanah honey? You might think again after reading Baboo the Unusual Bee by Lliana [sic] Bird, illustrated by Aysha Tengiz (Rocket Bird Books, £7.99). In its final, fun-fact pages, we learn that it takes 12 bees their whole lifetime to make one teaspoonful of honey. But that’s not what makes Baboo special. Baboo has pink stripes instead of yellow. At first this makes him an outcast but everything changes when Baboo encounters a green ladybird. A celebration of dance and difference, buzzing with colour. Age up to seven.
