Book Review: A Turkish Rosh Hashanah

September 30, 2024 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

Rosh Hashanah celebrations are different in different parts of the world, and if you want a glimpse into how Sephardic Jews get ready for the holiday, check out A Turkish Rosh Hashanah by Etan Basseri with illustrations by Zeynep Özatalay.

This short picture book follows Rafael and his cousins shopping at a market in Istanbul with their grandmother. Spanish words are sprinkled in the text because Sephardic Jews are a diaspora community that settled in the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal), which also influenced communities in the Middle East and North Africa, where some of the Iberian Sephardic Jews settled after being expelled from Spain. The vernacular languages are Sephardic Jews are generally derived from Spanish, Portuguese or Catalan. (I learned this from Wikipedia so if anyone knows better or different information please let me know and I’ll update!)

The children go shopping for special treats for the holiday meal and meet some cats along the way. While one child thinks the cats are creepy, Rafael is nice to them, and the cats repay that kindness when the kids encounter a bully.

When the family gathers for the feast, their grandmother explains the meaning of each of the foods: apples for sweetness, beets for freedom, dates for peace, pumpkin for forgiveness, leeks for friends who protect us and pomegranates “so that our good deeds will be as many as the seeds inside.” They also have a fish head at the table so that they will be leaders at the top in the coming year.

There’s a little more history of the Jewish community in Turkey at the back of the book, as well as information on what Rosh Hoshanah is and how it is celebrated in different communities. The Sephardic Jews, as well as Mizrachi and Hasidic Jews, have a seder meal, known as yehi ratzones in the Judeo-Spanish language known as Ladino, where special food are shared that symbolize hope for the family and the Jewish people in general for the new year.

Even if you don’t know all the history (though it’s a good idea to read the information at the back of the book before you read the story to kids if you don’t know about these traditions) this is a fun book that gives kids of all faiths a glimpse into traditions that might be different from their own but in which you can see similarities to other holidays involving food.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover, published 2024 by Kalaniot Books. Suggested retail price $19.99.

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Resources for Learning about Squirrels

Did you know that October is Squirrel Awareness Month? I didn’t know we needed more awareness of these little creatures, but let’s take it as a sign to learn more about squirrels!

Let’s start with some fun facts via Kids Konnect: did you know there are five subfamilies and more that 280 species of squirrels? The smallest are pygmy squirrels and the largest, the Bhutan giant flying squirrel, can be longer that 4 feet (1.2 meters).

Tree squirrels can climb down trees so fast because their ankles can rotate 180 degrees, allowing them to grab the tree bark as they go down. While most squirrels don’t survive their first year of life, they can live five to 10 years in the wild and squirrels have been known to live up to 20 years in captivity!

Rhythms of Play has more fun facts and tips for observing squirrels if you want to add some real life nature to your nature study.

We always like to start these collections with life cycle and parts of the animal printables, so let’s grab the squirrel life cycle an parts of a squirrel worksheets from Montessori Nature. (It doesn’t look like these are free any more but they have a whole unit study on squirrels you can buy that includes life cycle and parts activities, characteristics of different kinds of squirrels, a printable poster, information about predators and more.)

Grab the squirrel lapbook printable (free with email address) from Homeschool Share to learn the parts of a squirrel, where they live, what they eat, whether they hibernate and more. There’s also a nut taste test printable, a place for making observations about squirrels, life cycle of an oak tree, games and more.

Simple Everyday Mom has some cute squirrel themed worksheets including tracing the letter s, labeling the parts of a squirrel and a letter s maze. She also has more activity pages with a squirrel theme, including matching, a more traditional maze and a counting and graphing activity.

Work on letter recognition with this squirrel and acorn game printable from Teaching Mama. I love the idea of hiding the letters in a fall themed sensory bin for kids to find, identify and match to the letter on the worksheet.

For older kids you can do this “if I were a squirrel” writing prompt from Lesson Planet.

And throw in a little counting with these squirrel and acorn tens frame printables from JDaniel4’s Mom, which you can use to count real acorns or any other little fall themed thing you have handy.

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