Blog Entry #28

 

 

The Friday Nights of Nana

By Amy Hest

Illustrated by Claire A. Nivola

Candlewick Press, 2001

23 pages

Multicultural

 

            The Friday Nights of Nana is a book that reflects Jewish culture, and I have not seen many children’s books that mention the traditions of this culture. It is a really nice story about a girl, named Jennie, and her Nana. Jennie is helping her Nana prepare for a Sabbath meal for the whole family to eat. Nana and Jennie pick out their clothes, get flowers, bake pies, and braid the dough for challah. It is about everything they did to prepare for the Sabbath meal, from the morning to the dinner that night. The Friday Nights of Nana makes you feel the religious traditions of the Jewish culture and the pleasure of being with family.

            The illustrations in The Friday Nights of Nana are drawn in pen and ink, and filled in using watercolor painting. The illustrations are very realistic, like a painted photograph. The lines are very soft and thin. There are pops of bright color on every page, but it is usually from the characters’ clothing and items in the background setting. The majority of the background is clean, with muted colors, and there are a lot of white and taupe shades. I think the illustrations are very appealing and simple, yet formal. The formal look is due to the illustrations being framed-in square, and the negative space that is given for the text.

            The Friday Nights of Nana would be appropriate for a second grade level and up. It would be a great book for an independent reader or for a classroom library. It would be a good book for a teacher to read aloud and use as an opportunity to teach about a different culture, the Jewish culture. It would be great for students to see how families in other cultures gather together or to talk about grandparents, and the traditions they have in their families. The Friday Nights of Nana has no awards or honors.