The Very Best Sukkah<\/em> centres around Shoshi, who likes to win any challenge, even when there\u2019s none put forward. For example, despite her brother Avram\u2019s plea for her to wait up, she makes sure to beat the other children to school \u2013 again. Shoshi shares, \u201cMy grandmother is always reminding me that life is not a competition. \u2018Jajja,\u2019 I tell her, \u2018it\u2019s not like I always have to win the race. I just like being at the front. The view is better there!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Shoshi and her brothers live with their \u201cgrandparents in a little house surrounded by coffee trees in the Abayudaya Jewish community of Uganda.\u201d Shoshi races home on Friday nights to help her jajja make the holiday meal, in particular the kalo bread \u2013 it\u2019s her job to mix the cassava and millet flour for the dough. The family then walks to synagogue, where the rabbi reminds the kids that their favourite holiday is coming up: Sukkot. The siblings start planning how they will make the best sukkah in the village.<\/p>\n Every family\u2019s sukkah is different, \u201cand each one reflects its builder\u2019s special skills and talents.\u201d For the most part, the differences are respected, but there is jealousy that Daudi, who sells samosas in the village, has enough money saved to buy \u201cfancy battery-operated lights and elegant crochet trim in the big town of Mbale to decorate his sukkah.\u201d<\/p>\n Life has a way of making playing fields level, however, and unfortunate weather one night causes mayhem, even for Daudi and his daughter, especially for Daudi, whose sukkah is destroyed. But the villagers rally around him and, in the end, the most beautiful sukkah is the one to which everyone contributes. A wonderful message, well delivered and boldly and colourfully drawn.<\/p>\n The Very Best Sukka<\/em>h has a page about the Abayudaya, a glossary of terms and the lyrics of \u201cHinei Ma Tov\u201d in Hebrew, Luganda and English: \u201cSee how good and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to sit down together.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Mendel\u2019s Hanukkah Mess Up<\/em> also features something getting wrecked. In this story, it\u2019s a crashed-up Mitzvah Mobile rather than windblown sukkot. And, whereas it\u2019s nature that destroys Daudi\u2019s sukkah, it\u2019s Mendel who doesn\u2019t notice the bridge that\u2019s so low as to crumple the large chanukiyah on the Mitzvah Mobile\u2019s roof.<\/p>\n