What a Way to Start a New Year! A Rosh Hashanah Story

Dina’s family is eating take-out pizza on packing boxes and yearning for their former home, especially since the imminent arrival of the Jewish New Year reminds them of old friends and traditions. Even Dina’s father, “who wasn’t Jewish, but... loved celebrating the holidays,” speaks wistfully of a neighbor’s honey cake. A thwarted trip back to Greenville and a series of small mishaps don’t help (hence the title, which also serves as the story’s refrain), and an invitation to services and dinner from one of Dina’s father’s new co-workers doesn’t encourage Dina, either. But what if Dina is wrong about her new community—in the best kind of way? As Jules (No English) notes in her afterword, arriving in a new community in time for the school year can be a double whammy for Jewish families. Stead’s (The Pink Party) bright, earnest illustrations convey a resilient close-knit family, but while she and Jules succeed in assuring readers that a core value of Judaism is welcoming new arrivals, their storytelling can be literal and heavy-handed. Ages 3–8. (Aug.)