Measuring a Year: A Rosh Hashanah Story

“How do you measure a year? By looking at how much you grew... or all the things you learned to do?” The narrator of this Rosh Hashanah meditation nudges readers to use the Jewish New Year to reflect on the concluding annum: “Times you were strong and super brave? Things you wish you hadn’t said or that you hadn’t done?” González Hoang’s sunny, digitally finished watercolor and colored pencil art portrays a variously inclusive cast of children and families in moments big and small, happy and sad. Jewish culture and celebrations are woven into the vignettes both subtly (a wall of children’s crafts includes an ice-pop-stick Star of David and a paper dreidel) and explicitly (a campout in a backyard sukkah). Elovitz Marshall’s afterword is, like the book’s contemplative text, a gentle tribute to the hope and possibilities of new beginnings—in the New Year season, the opening of school, and even “the start of each new day”: all are opportunities to “push the ‘reset’ button, and begin (once again) to be better.” Ages 3–5. (Aug.)