Fanny’s Big Idea: how Jewish Book Week was born by Richard Michaelson, illustrated by Alyssa Russell - OPTIONAL

Fanny’s Big Idea: how Jewish Book Week was born by Richard Michaelson, illustrated by Alyssa Russell. NON-FICTION PICTURE BOOK. Rocky Pond (Penguin), 2025. $19. 9798217003259

BUYING ADVISORY: EL - OPTIONAL

APPEALS TO: SOME

Fanny and her family left their home in Russia when the tsar started burning their villages and homes. In New York she found a place where she could learn and grow, even if she was being urged to learn housekeeping and get married. Throughout her life she encouraged others to learn about their own origins and to learn about others - “The more you learn about someone’s life, the harder it is not to like them.” When she eventually became the director of a Boston public library branch, she created a week of celebration around Hanukkah to help the new American Jews learn their background and to open Jewish traditions and cultures to other ethnic groups.

The title of the book is misleading - while it does lead to the beginning of Jewish Week, it is more Fanny’s story even though we don’t learn her last name until the last page of the book. It is a story of immigration and persecution and finding your own path in the world - which happens to lead to the formation of Jewish Book Week. Lovely illustrations for a quiet story. It could lead to a discussion of “Week” celebrations of various kinds.

Cindy, Middle School Librarian, MLS