CHALLAH DAY! Delicious and Fun for Everyone

If "challah" bread is not familiar to you, think about Brioche, Hawaiian Bread, or any other bread made with a basic yeast dough enriched with egg, oil, and (often) sweetener. Some also use a bit of honey and other tasty additions in the recipe. When prepared and served as challah bread, it is braided in a variety of loaf or ring shapes. 

Image courtesy of King Arthur Flour

Pronunciation of challah bread in English commonly renders the initial /c/ as silent, HAH` luh. The word is actually Hebrew, in which the initial sound and accent are not the same as in English, with /ch/ having a throaty sound, closer to a breathy cough. Khul AHH`. 

A new picture book offering is thoroughly Americanized, using brief rhymed text and big-eyed,  comic-style illustrations of the family and  their dog. In that context, this title CHALLAH DAY!  produces a pun in standard American English, for HOLIDAY. In fact, that's what first caught my attention.

Holiday House, 2023

CHALLAH DAY! is written by Charlotte Offsay and illustrated by Jason Kirschner. That photorealistic challah loaf on the cover appears on the title page, the cookbook cover in illustrations, and on other pages throughout. It features the rich golden (egg-brushed) crust, the knobby shape and yeasty rise from braiding, evoking an appetite-boosting sense of how that loaf would smell, fresh out of the oven. 

There was a time in this country that the only way to try challah bread was to make it yourself or live near a Jewish bakery. The luxurious taste, textures and versatility have brought it into nationwide supermarkets, bakeries, and restaurants, even when not labeled with the name of its Jewish origins. Weekly Sabbath/Shabat meals on Fridays after sunset provide the traditional celebratory reason for having a challah-making-day on a weekly basis.It also stars on the table for other Jewish holidays (with the exception of Passover, for which yeast/leavening may not be used).

This  text and its vibrant illustrations provide  a fantastic way to introduce the meaning, making, and savoring of challah bread in one family's life. It will likely inspire families (or singles) to try making it at home, since a straightforward recipe and advice appear in the back pages. Don't be intimidated by the prospect of making homemade bread, even if you've never done so before. Don't let the braiding process deter your efforts, either. This enriched recipe yields a stretchy, stable dough that supports amateur attempts. You can also find countless Youtube videos with walk-through directions for braiding in simple or elaborate ways. In this book, the two young siblings manage braiding with numbered images, so you certainly can do it. 

The rhymed text and simple illustrations comprise a series of spreads showing "how-to" with step-by-step simplicity, including spills or splashes. Also noted is that slices of challah bread make exceptional French toast. Challah bread is an ideal example of ways in which cultural and religious traditions are more universal than we might otherwise think. Rather than viewing anyone "other than" our own families or communities as "others", books like this one encourage us to draw a circle of open-mindedness, to consider what anyone might have or do from which we can learn. I recently featured a book (OUT AND ABOUT)  that exemplifies a Jewish value of giving to those in need, especially doing so anonymously and consistently. Now that's a value that we should all share, right? The familiar expression to "break bread together" means to welcome, to trust, to enjoy the company of others. Try sharing this wonderful new book with others, and making a loaf or four for yourselves!

SOUP? Try LENTIL SOUP by Carole Tremblay and Marieen Poignonec

Here in Wisconsin it's the first day of May, but the weather has been stubbornly cold, blustery, and not at all spring-like. That's frustrating, but not entirely surprising. When the sun shines through on a cold, windy day, I can feel spring nudging its way around the corner. But when cloudy and overcast conditions persist for days on end, I need to cook up a pot of soup. 

ORCA BOOKS, Canada, 2022

I plan to have the ingredients for LENTIL SOUP on hand the next time that happens. Those ingredients are not only tasty and healthy, they are cleverly comic in a recent picture book. Every day veggies are brought to memorable life in the conversation between young mouse Buddy and his increasingly exasperated mother. LENTIL SOUP is written by Carole Tremblay and illustrated by Maureen Poignonec, 

The endpapers reveal an array of bite-sized veggies with cheeky expressions in their google eyes, eyes that are similar to the wide-eyed pair who tell the entire story in speech bubbles with delicately-lined and softly colored images related to each exchange. 

When mother serves up steaming hot soup, the young one declares it too hot to eat. Then, an exchange of questions/answers ensues, with Buddy questioning every ingredient, starting with those lentils. Mother responds with answers posed as four multiple choice options, three of which are laughably absurd. The actual answer is informative, to Buddy and to readers, leading to the next, then the next, then the next. As Buddy recognizes his mother's progressive impatience, he offers optional answers to his own questions. Mom takes the bait and supplies the correct response, right down to the herbs. 

By that time the soup is too cold (kids will love predicting that) and needs to return to the pot to heat up. The humor throughout is light and delightful, while providing a template for young readers to define or explain other fruits or vegetables (or other things) using the four-options approach and simple drawings of their thoughts. Imaginations will run wild!

The concluding two pages are deliciously tongue-in-cheek, and cheeky, making Buddy an unforgettable character. I'm wondering if he and his mother may appear in a future story? There's a bonus at the end- Mother's recipe for lentil soup! Can you nominate some other recipe that deserves thorough examination through the eyes of Buddy and company?

When it comes to fictional books with factual ingredients, this one is a gem. Kids will adore the interaction in this deftly-depicted child-parent relationship that suggests amusement, affection, and humor-bordering-on-annoyance. 

Pull up a hot bowl of soup and this book for a heartwarming experience. While you're at it, hold warm thoughts for a change to spring weather, please!