A piece of the social studies curriculum at kindergarten level is to explore other cultures and places. I integrate a lot of fiction to support the curriculum, and Christmas provides an opportunity to look at Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. The community where I teach is fairly unicultural and mostly those of Hispanic descent. It’s a real eye-opener for some children to realize there are those who don’t celebrate Christmas.
So Ll week–lights–I bring out all my Hanukkah- and Jewish-themed literature to share. One of my favorites, which has absolutely nothing to do with the holiday, is Something From Nothing by Phoebe Gilman.
This book is a Jewish folktale and beautifully illustrated. It begins with a wonderful blanket that Joseph’s tailor-grandfather made him when he was born and follows Joseph as he grows–and how the blanket ages with him.
Children all have loved objects, and every single one of them can identify with Joseph’s emotional ties to his blanket and his fierce trust in his grandfather to fix it. When his mother begins her rhyming chant and ends with the words “it’s time to throw it out”, he rushes to Grandfather.
Each time, his grandfather transforms his blanket into something else, breathing new life into the object.
The end, for me, makes the tale, because it draws in the nature of writing and authorship, and how writing is all about making something from nothing.
In addition to the larger illustrations, there’s an entire alternate story told in smaller illustrations at the bottom of the pages. That’s the story of a mouse family who lives under the floorboards at Grandfather’s house and how they utilize the scraps of Joseph’s blanket each time it’s remade. The mouse family grows as Joseph does, and the blanket’s final transformation ends up, of course, in their house.
It’s a warm, delightful tale, with illustrations set in the 19th-20th century era of Eastern Europe, and those tempera paintings bring Joseph’s home and village to life. Definitely recommended, if only as a library checkout–but I’d add it my collection and consider myself the richer for the book.
