Not So Fast, Max: A Rosh Hashanah Visit with Grandma

Family, Jewish traditions, and joyfully celebrating the holiday of Rosh Hashanah center this familiar-seeming tale. Max and his sister Emily are spending the day with Savta, their grandmother visiting from Israel. With the promise of making caramel apples to welcome in a sweet new year, hasty Max is impatient to get started, but Savta has a day of apple picking and orchard frolicking planned as well. Grumpy Max needs to be coaxed into enjoyment, but as the trio picks apples, plays, and tells stories together, he finally comes around to having fun, and even helps create a new Rosh Hashanah family tradition--caramel apples on the first day of the holiday, and apple cake on the second. The writing and illustration styles are straightforward and accessible. Max's reluctance to relinquish his sour mood will ring true to kids and their parents and caregivers, as will his turnaround when shown love, patience and a chance to take ownership. The artwork features a fall color palette that compliments the theme and content, and bold, squiggly lines add a sense of dynamism to the somewhat static scenes in the orchard. Back matter includes information on celebrating Rosh Hashanah, a glossary of Hebrew terms used in the text, and recipes for "Savta's Apple Cake" and "Max's Caramel Apples." This book shows plenty of positive, authentic, and accurate Jewish religious and cultural content, and is appropriate for the intended grade level for which it was written. While not a standout title, it is uncomplicated and easy to understand and relate to.--Gigi Perlman Pagliarulo "Association of Jewish Lbraries / Sydney Taylor Shmooze, September 02, 2021"
A won-der-ful grand-moth-er -- ​"Savta"in Hebrew, and as she is called in the book -- arrives from Israel for a vis-it with her two grand-chil-dren in Amer-i-ca. A relaxed, vague-ly hip-pie woman of inde-ter-mi-nate age, she is imme-di-ate-ly lov-able. From her long, gray, attrac-tive-ly disheveled hair, vis-i-ble yet dis-creet wrin-kles, work boots, and svelte, healthy physique, she is obvi-ous-ly fun even before she says one word. And her demeanor! She is a unique and spe-cial grandmother. Sav-ta takes Max and his sis-ter on an adven-ture. They are search-ing for apples to pick so they can make a spe-cial treat for Rosh Hashanah -- caramel apples. As they search and pick, Sav-ta shows off her many unex-pect-ed skills: she can aim and throw like an ath-lete, she can jug-gle like a cir-cus per-former, and she can tell engag-ing sto-ries, all the while gen-tly edu-cat-ing the chil-dren about the hol-i-day and about their fam-i-ly history. The sto-ry flows effort-less-ly into a short deli-cious adven-ture which pulls togeth-er life lessons, Rosh Hashanah rit-u-als, fam-i-ly tra-di-tions, and some yum-my-sound-ing recipes. Beau-ti-ful-ly illus-trat-ed, the book includes Hebrew vocab-u-lary and insights about Rosh Hashanah. One small caveat: the caramel apple recipe calls for slic-ing the treats into wedges before serv-ing, which could be option-al. The apples can be con-sumed whole on the stick! Enjoy!--Helen Weiss Pin-cus "Jewish Book Council, September 2, 2021"
Rosh Hashanah is the celebration of the Jewish New Year. In 2021, the celebration will take place September 6-8. Rosh Hashanah is one of the most important holidays in the Jewish religion celebrating hope and renewal. Apples are often chosen as a food of choice for celebrations. When Max and Emily's grandma comes to visit from Israel to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Max just wants to get to the fun part of making the caramel apples. But Grandma has other plans first. While Max and Emily gather apples at the orchard, Grandma is able to work on other lessons about their faith and culture as well as memories from her own childhood. Finally, Max and Emily choose their own memorable traditions to celebrate with their family. The illustrations invoke the fun of fall including beautifully colored trees and the fun of an apple orchard. Max's expressive reactions during his time with his grandma and sister change from frustration to joy and kids will be able to pick that up.--Stacie Gorkow "Sincerely Stacie Blog, March 2, 2021"