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A quiet, joyful story celebrating a Jewish mother's tradition of making challah with her child merges a lyrical text with stunning illustrations - and includes the author's favorite recipe. Melt into the nooks and crannies of this book's unhurried pages, offering a place to rest and spend time counting your many blessings - current and imminent. Here, a child and a mother measure, mix, knead, shape, and tuck their dough under a towel like a sleeping baby. Then, as they do every week, they wait while their dough rises, soon to be baked and gratefully shared at a Shabbat gathering with loved ones. Sidura Ludwig's poetic narration captures the experience of a Jewish family as they make challah - a lesson in patience, slowing down, faith, and family. Illustrator Sophia Vincent Guy brings light and warmth to the scene, from a sun-bleached, gossamer curtain to the rising steam from the bread, all rendered in delicate, decorative patterns. Whatever their background, readers will be happy to find the author's go-to recipe for challah at the end, along with a glossary and an author's note describing the personal meaning of her family's weekly ritual.
About the author
Sidura Ludwig is an award-winning writer for children and adults. Her debut picture book
Rising (Candlewick Press/Walker UK) won the 2024 Canadian Jewish Literary Award. Her adult short story collection
You Are Not What We Expected (House of Anansi Press) won the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature and was short-listed for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. She is also the author of the middle-grade novel
Swan: The Girl Who Grew (Nimbus Publishing). Sidura holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a Master of Journalism from Carleton University. She lives in Thornhill, Ontario, with her family, where she makes challah every week.
