Is It Sukkot Yet?

The duo behind Is It Passover Yet? and Is It Hanukkah Yet? returns with a third seasonally oriented exploration of a Jewish holiday, using cues like leaves turning orange and squirrels gathering food for winter to signal that “Sukkot is on its way.” Work and play are twin themes in Barash’s tender verse and Psacharopulo’s gauzy-textured cartoons; scenes of playing hide-and-seek in an autumn forest give way to ones that focus on the assembly of the sukkah (“When the toolbox comes out/ and the hammers bang hard/ As we put up the hut that will stand in our yard.../ Sukkot is on its way”). Barash incorporates references to a few details of the celebration (“When our guests smell the etrog’s bright lemony zest”) that Sukkot newbies might need explained to them, but the bucolic setting and the palpable excitement of the final pages, which build to an outdoor sleepover in the sukkah “with moonbeams for light,” create a powerful sense of anticipation that should easily leave readers looking forward to their own families’ festivities. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)