Joshua Mendes misses his best friend Isaac, who has moved to Boston. Joshua's Papa is importing chocolate beans to the American Colonies, showing cafe owners how to make hot chocolate now that the tea tax has made tea too expensive to drink. When Papa travels to Boston, Joshua joins him. Together, they help Isaac's family open a chocolate house, while the people of Boston demonstrate against British tea taxation.
Set against the backdrop of Hanukkah and the American fight for independence, this is a story of friendship, freedom, and a love of chocolate.
End notes provide background about the Boston Tea Party, a brief explanation of the holiday of Hanukkah, and a description of America's first Jews, predominantly settlers from Spain and Portugal who came to escape religious persecution and to find religious freedom and economic opportunity. Includes recipes for Colonial-style hot chocolate and bunuelos.
Tami Lehman-Wilzig is an award-winning author of 13 Jewish content picture books, including Hanukkah around the World, Nathan Blows Out the Hanukkah Candles, and Green Bible Stories for Children. She served as one of Israel's leading English language advertising copywriters for thirty-five years, creating the marketing image of numerous Israeli exporters. She lives in Kfar Saba, Israel. Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz authored the pioneering bestseller On the Chocolate Trail. That book provided the foundation for the museum exhibit, Semite Sweet: On Jews and Chocolate at the Bernard Museum, NYC. Her forthcoming book about Jewish celebratory breads will be released in 2023 (Behrman House). Rabbi Prinz has held leadership positions in the national Jewish community and was a congregational rabbi for three decades. She lives in New York City.
Title: The Boston Chocolate Party
Author: Lehman-Wilzig, Tami,Prinz, Rabbi Deborah R.
ISBN: 9781681155760
Binding:
Publisher: Behrman House Inc.,U.S.
Publication Date: 2022-10-20
Number of Pages: 32
Weight: 0.4271 kg
A fast-paced picture book that combines the drama foreshadowing the American Revolution, the heroic Maccabee fight for freedom, and Sephardic Hanukkah customs . . . Readers can enjoy this lively historical vignette while feeling proud to see Jews at the founding of our nation. --Ellen G. Cole for the Association of Jewish Libraries
. . . Combines years of research with the kind of imagination that will have children reading this book over and over. . . .There's even a surprise piece of trivia, showing the kind of cups President George and Martha Washington used for drinking chocolate. --Donald H. Harrison, San Diego Jewish World
Brings history to life and illuminates Jewish culture in colonial times. It's wonderful to read how Hanukkah was celebrated in Newport during the 1700's. It made me feel right at home!
--Rabbi Marc Mandel, historic Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island
The Boston Chocolate Party is a child's tale of ingenuity, resilience, and friendship, and embeds these values in an early American history too little known by our children. This book combines whimsy with history in a delicious mix that goes perfectly with a cup of hot chocolate, and a young person's capacity to imagine the past. --William Cutter, Prof. emeritus of Literature, Education, and Human Relations, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
