K'Tonton's Yom Kippur Kitten

by Sadie Rose Weilerstein

A kitchen mishap presents K'tonton with a sticky problem as he is preparing for Yom Kippur, the Day of Judgement. In this adventure children will experience the holiday's true message and enjoy our heroes exploits.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0827605412
• ISBN13: 9780827605411
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Jewish Publication Society of America
• Length: 36 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 7.2" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Delightful!

I just read this to my grandson, who is four, and he absolutely loved it. He made me read it two more times and made me promise to read it again next time I came for a visit. Wonderful story, lovely artwork.

How to atone

Sadie Rose Weilerstein, born in 1894, was a leading author of Jewish children's stories for more than 50 years. She introduced the tiny character named K'tonton in the September 1930 issue of Outlook magazine. Isaac Samuel ben Baruch Reuben--whose first name meant laughter--was a late-born miracle. His mother had wanted a child so badly that in her Sukkot prayers, she promised to love even a child "no bigger than a thumb." Sure enough, before a year had passed, she gave birth to a son. And sure enough, he was no bigger than her thumb. She blanketed him in the flax she had used to wrap an etrog--the Israeli citrus fruit used to celebrate Sukkot--and cradled him in a hand-carved etrog box. This story probably appeared in the first Weilerstein K'tonton collection, The Adventures of K'tonton (1935). It reappeared in The Best of K'tonton, a 1980 compendium of 16 stories from three books.K'tonton was in the kitchen when a kitten appeared at the door. He asked his mother to give it some milk. At first, she refused, since feeding the kitten would encourage it to come back every day. But she fed it, and it came back a second day. On the third day, K'tonton's mother was preparing taiglach (honey pastries) and set a cup of honey at the edge of the table to fetch the kitten's milk. Then she went to answer the phone. Just then, K'tonton saw a stream of honey running down the side of the cup, and licked it off. There was more honey on the rim. K'tonton leaned forward to reach it and sent the cup crashing to the floor. His mother asked if K'tonton had done this. He didn't answer. She blamed the kitten, and he did not correct her. The lesson is very simple and traditional for Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. "For sins against God, God can forgive. For sins against another person, only the person wronged can forgive." But it's told in a way that small children can understand.How K'tonton achieves atonement is what makes this story special. Alyssa A. Lappen