The Friday Nights of Nana

I thought this was a good book for many different reasons; it is engaging, informative, and relatable to many types of people. For people who don’t practice Judaism, the book gave a clear description of how that particular religion celebrates dinner time and what they eat. The language was very clear and detailed. For example, the book said, “Nana washes the good china and irons all the wrinkles in her lace tablecloth. I fold napkins with lace borders.” This tells us exactly what the character in the book is doing and even includes small details just like the “lace napkins.” The point of view is told by the little girl in the book who is visiting her Grandma’s house on a Friday night. I believe young readers can really show more relate to this story and learn a lot about how to help out around the house. The content of the book was accurate and seemed typical of a Jewish sabbath dinner. So as readers, we get to see what this experience is all about! The book pushes readers to think about the importance of family traditions and teaches about having patience. show less

I think this book is great for a few different reasons; It is informative, engaging, and relatable to many people. For people who practice a different religion than Judaism, this book does a good job of helping them understand part of their religion. At the same time, I feel this book would be relatable to people who are Jewish. I also feel that the illustrations helped to engage readers because they were colorful and followed with the story. One part of the book that I feel is relatable to everyone is when she is telling Nana about having off of school for the Sabbath. "Today I have no school!" I sing. "Lucky me!" "today you have no school!" she answers "Lucky ME!" "Now tell me about tonight," I say. " The family is coming for Sabbath, show more and we have work to do!" All these details make the book personal and easy to connect to. show less

I really enjoyed reading this book for multiple reasons. First, I thought it was a very good introduction story about the holiday of Shabbat and the Jewish culture. I also thought the characters were very believable and culturally sensitive. The author put the story in the point of view of the little girl and if a young girl was reading this book, she could easily identify with the main character. The repeating language of the book, with the little girl repeatedly asking 'if it was time' was a clear pattern that the readers and audience could pick up on. The content of the book was accurate and typical of a jewish shabbat dinner. The main idea of this story was about the importance of tradition in families as well as patience. The young show more girl learns throughout the book about the importance of patience as well as how to prepare for a typical shabbat dinner. show less

I liked this book, but did not find it to be overly exciting. I was able to relate to it from similar experiences from my childhood, but that was all. Some good attributes that this book had were the descriptive language and the detailed illustrations. The illustrations did a great job at showing and enhancing the text on each page. The language was so descriptive, that illustrations were not even necessary because it created a mental image. An example from the book is "Nana sips her tea and the tea is too hot and she blows in the old china cup, making ripples." I liked this book also because it is a culturally diverse book. It is about the Jewish culture which would be important to include in our future classrooms as teachers due to show more the variety of students we will have. I could actually relate to this book in another way because of the culture. I nannied a Jewish family for two years, and I noticed many similarities from the book. The book discusses traditional Jewish concepts and ideas such as Challah bread and the Sabbath. The main idea of this book is definitely family and the Jewish culture. show less

I thought this was a really good book. It may not have been as exciting as some books, but it talks about a very important day and the associated preparations for the Jewish Sabbath. This book is told in first person by a little girl named Jennie. She tells readers about all the preparations she does with her grandmother before her family comes over for the Sabbath. By reading this book, readers can learn about all the different things that are done before the Sabbath. Each time Jennie tells about one of the preparations, it directly reflects an aspect of their religion and/or culture. In each instance, Jennie would ask “Is it time?” and her grandmother would reply, “Not yet.” Finally, her grandmother answered “Now,” show more indicating the prep work was finished and the celebration could begin. The repetition of the phrase was important because it demonstrated the excitement and angst children so often express. This also aided in the development of the characters because grandparents have so much patience and the grandmother did not tell her to stop asking or anything of the sort. Instead she implied the time would come, even though it is not time yet. The writing flowed consistently throughout the book and matched the sequence of events appropriately. Something that bothered me was how the color blue was clearly something important or related to the Sabbath, but the author did not explain why. Since this book is about the traditions of the Sabbath I think it would have enhanced the story even more if the significance of the color blue were explained. When the whole family arrived at the end, each person was wearing predominantly blue clothing so it was evident that blue represented something. The big idea of this book is traditions and rituals are important aspects of culture/religion, and time with family is cherished. show less

This was a book about the special love of a big family. I liked the book because I too have a very big family that enjoys gathering to share a meal, so this book speaks to me in a special way. It used language and illustrations of a little girl dancing and skipping to highlight her joy in the moment. All children can identify with this as they all love to dance and move when they are happy. It was also about the special time a little girl spends with her Aunt, helping her to prepare food for the family meal. This book is a cultural book which will help the Hispanic children in the classroom feel represented in the literature. The overall theme was the special bonding between a child and her Aunt.

This book has beautiful illustrations and follows the day of a Jewish girl and her Nana as they prepare for Sabbath. The book shows the make up of Jennie's family including her parents, brother, uncles, aunts and cousins.