Behrman House
Who’s Ready For Some “Potato Pancake” News?
Happy Holidays, everyone! Of course, one of those holidays is Hanukkah. As I type this, we’re smack-dab in the middle of Hanukkah. Well, not exactly the middle. Somewhat past the middle. But not quite the end. It’s eight nights long in total, and tonight is night six. So Hanukkah is still chugging along like a festive frolicking freight train, and that means that this blog post is still thematically relevant…for the next two days. Perhaps I should’ve posted this a few days ago. Oh, well. Better late than never, I guess?
All of the above is a very awkward prelude to this: I wrote a Hanukkah-themed graphic novel for kids called The Day I Became a Potato Pancake, which was illustrated by the super-talented Beilin Xu. It’s out now from Behrman House. The book has been getting mentioned – and reviewed – in a few different publications recently. So I thought I’d mention some of ’em.
Here’s what Publisher’s Weekly said about The Day I Became a Potato Pancake: “This speculative, character-focused graphic novel highlights aspects of Jewish identity and culture through multiple lenses to craft a goofy yet nuanced read.”
Read the full Publishers Weekly review HERE.
PW also included the book on its list of Jewish holiday books for children, which you can check out HERE.
The Day I Became a Potato Pancake was included in Booklist’s Fall Youth Preview for 2024, which you can see RIGHT OVER HERE.
It was mentioned in THIS ARTICLE from Book Riot titled “5 Awesome Jewish Children’s Books About Hanukkah.”
And it was mentioned in THIS ARTICLE from The Jewish Telegraphic Agency on new children’s books for Hanukkah.
Here are some other reviews of the book:
THIS is one from The Texas Jewish Post.
And HERE is one from The Jewish Book Council.
THIS is a review of the book from The Reporter, a publication of the Jewish Federation of Greater Binghamton.
And HERE is one from The Sydney Taylor Shmooze blog.
That just about does it for my press roundup for The Day I Became a Potato Pancake. However…
If you’d like to find out about some of the other Hanukkah-themed comic book stories I’ve written, you can click HERE.
And if you like reading humor pieces, I wrote THIS LIST of Hanukkah-themed horror movie titles (all of which I made up).
Lastly, HERE is a blog post where I talk about a Hanukkah-themed audio script I wrote for Yoto’s 5-Minute Holiday Stories collection (which came out in November of 2023). In that same blog post, I talk about two Christmas-themed children’s books I’ve penned.
“The Day I Became a Potato Pancake” Is Out NOW!
What if – by some miracle of modern science – you were transformed into a walking, talking, sentient potato pancake? How would it affect your relationships with other people? How would it affect your rapport with your best friend? That’s the premise of The Day I Became a Potato Pancake, a Hanukkah-themed graphic novel which was written by yours truly and illustrated by the incredible Beilin Xu.
And today is the book birthday of The Day I Became a Potato Pancake, because that book was published TODAY by Behrman House!
Here’s what Publisher’s Weekly said about this book: “This speculative, character-focused graphic novel highlights aspects of Jewish identity and culture through multiple lenses to craft a goofy yet nuanced read.”
Read the full PW review HERE.
The Day I Became a Potato Pancake also appeared on a recent Publisher’s Weekly list of Jewish Holiday Books for Children.
And it’s mentioned in Booklist’s Fall Youth Preview for 2024.
Here’s the official publisher description of the book:
A fun-packed graphic novel with Hanukkah-themed, science fiction adventure.
Naomi and her best friend Ben love playing with the cool inventions Naomi’s scientist mother always works on, like the holographic simulation room where they can fight dinosaurs. One day, using special finger-print copying gloves, she and Ben break into her mom’s top-secret lab (otherwise known as the garage) to see what other cool stuff they might find. There they find a device called the Transfogram, an experimental machine that transforms you into whatever you’re thinking about at the moment. While eating potato pancakes, Ben reaches for the button to see what it does– and next thing he knows, he’s transformed into a life-size walking, talking potato pancake!
While Naomi’s mom finally concocts an antidote, Ben discovers that he enjoys being the center of attention at school, and he delays changing back to a human. But the clock is running out and if he doesn’t take the antidote soon, he’ll remain a potato pancake forever.
To make matters worse, there’s a mysterious figure watching Ben’s every move. It’s an alien, called a Dreideltopian, who collects Hanukkah-themed objects from around the galaxy for his museum, and now he wants to collect Ben!
To order The Day I Became a Potato Pancake on Amazon, go HERE.
And to order the book on the Behrman House site, go HERE.