Pat, Roll, Pull: A Challah Braiding Story

Pres-Gr 1—An observant Jewish girl goes to preschool excited about braiding a challah (Sabbath bread) for the first time. Her teacher gives each of the girls in her class a piece of dough to shape into a traditional loaf, but Leah just can't seem to get the hang of it, despite repeatedly chanting "Pat, roll, pull. Twist, turn, thump. Over, under, over, under, over, under." Her friends finish their braids quickly, but when they comment on Leah's misshapen lump, she injects a little imagination into the process and says it's "a fluffy cloud." This leads to a lot of creative play with the challah dough, and, in the end, each girl has created a nontraditional shape that surprisingly comes out of the oven still looking like challah. The illustrations feature large-eyed, cheerful characters that have a cartoonish quality. While this title is clearly depicting an Orthodox Jewish classroom, and includes references to blessing the bread and the "mitzvah of 'taking challah'," the accepting attitude of Leah's teacher and friends combined with the idea of playing with one's food softens any dogmatism. A recipe is included. Mainly for collections serving a large Jewish population.—Teri Markson, Los Angeles Public Library