Description
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 a pregnant pause for 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. Author 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.
Author Bio
Sidura Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed Canadian author who has been a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and a runner-up in the Little Bird Short Story Contest. She recently won the 2021 Vine Award for best Jewish fiction for her debut short story collection, You Are Not What We Expected (House of Anansi Press, 2020). She also authored Holding My Breath (Key Porter Books, Canada; Shaye Areheart Books, U.S.; Tindal Street Fiction, U.K., 2007). Her debut picture book, Rising, illustrated by Sophia Vincent Guy, was published in 2024 by Candlewick. Sidura studied Creative Writing at York University in Toronto, and obtained a Master of Journalism from Carleton University. She is a 2021 graduate of the M.F.A. program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. More information is available at: siduraludwig.com
Review Quotes
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A meditative look at Shabbat preparations. . . . Carefully laying out each step of the baking process, from mixing ingredients to braiding the loaves, the book evokes Shabbat itself, conveying the beauty of taking time to rest and appreciate loved ones. . . . Intertwining the tactile rituals of baking with the religious and cultural heft of Shabbat, a contemplative paean to challah.
—Kirkus Reviews
This gentle, poetic picture book depicts a child and mother making challah for Shabbat. . . . Lovely.
—Book Riot
Biographical note
Sophia Vincent Guy holds a Master of Architecture from McGill University in Montreal. She started her own company, SVG Illustration & Design, in 2015, and her work includes children's illustration, editorial art, and surface and graphic design. She is the illustrator of several picture books, including A Big Stink: A Tale of Ardor and Odor by Edward H. Kafka-Gelbrecht and In Every Generation: A PJ Library Family Haggadah, which has been translated into several languages. After growing up in Canada, Sophia Vincent Guy now works from her garden studio in a small city outside Tel Aviv, Israel.
