Beautiful Yetta's Hannukkah Kitten

Reviewed by: Barbara Merritt - Scarborough School Department, Scarborough, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: December 5, 2014

Review

In this followup to Yetta, the Yiddish Chicken, Yetta is a surrogate mother to a flock of Spanish speaking parrots. One cold night, she finds a small kitten and tells the parrots she will care for it. The parrots are afraid it the kitten is dangerous and no one knows what to feed it. Yetta decides, since it is Hannukkah when people are in a good mood, to take the kitten to the old grandmother to care for it. Grandmother does, indeed care for the kitten and feeds Yetta and the parrots latkes. The picture on the cover of this book, with a huge Yetta cradling a tiny kitten in her wings, is enough to draw in almost any reader. A lot of the story is told through speech bubbles, with Yiddish accompanying the English for Yetta and the grandmother, and Spanish accompanying the English for the parrots. Pronunciation is given for both. The illustrations are comical, and really wonderful. Vibrant colors really pop off of white backgrounds. Readers will not learn a lot about Hannukkah, but it is a good book to have to read at that time of year.

Overall Book Score: very good