The cus­tom of the ​“sukkah hop” is a pop­u­lar expres­sion of com­mu­ni­ty in Jew­ish life. The excite­ment of walk­ing from home to home, shar­ing meals and prayer with the extend­ed com­mu­ni­ty in addi­tion to fam­i­ly mem­bers, adds a spe­cial dimen­sion to the obser­vance of the fall fes­ti­val. The Sukkah Hop cap­tures the joy of this tra­di­tion in sim­ple rhyming text and col­or­ful pic­tures, mak­ing it a per­fect intro­duc­tion to Sukkot for young children.

Talia Drigues’ illus­tra­tions fea­ture a com­bi­na­tion of real­ism and car­toon-like play­ful­ness. The fam­i­ly on the first page is full of enthu­si­asm. The mother’s over­sized eye­glass­es lend a com­ic touch to the scene. The daugh­ter car­ries an over­flow­ing tote bag of paper chains for dec­o­ra­tions; her mother’s choco­late chip cook­ies also seem about to slide off the tray she is car­ry­ing. Much of Bar­bara Ler­man-Golombs’ text is framed by the walls of the sukkah, while on oth­er pages

the words appear against a back­ground of sky.

All the impor­tant ele­ments of Sukkot share space in the sto­ry. There are arts and crafts to enhance the sukkah, ener­getic shak­ing of the lulav, plen­ti­ful food, and many dif­fer­ent kinds of peo­ple. A preg­nant woman, an old­er one using a walk­er, a fam­i­ly with two dads, and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers with a range of skin and hair col­ors, high­light plu­ral­ism. The autumn sea­son brings ​“pump­kins, gourds, and green­ery,” and, when night falls, the space between the s’chach on the roof allows those with­in the sukkah to count the stars.

An ele­ment of fan­ta­sy in this oth­er­wise real­is­tic pic­ture involves the inter­ac­tions between two birds seat­ed on top of the sukkah. In one illus­tra­tion, a bird looks up at the stars through a tiny tele­scope while his com­pan­ion strums a bird-sized gui­tar. In anoth­er illus­tra­tion, one bird con­ducts while the oth­er sings. There is a lot of activ­i­ty to share with chil­dren in this cheer­ful­ly acces­si­ble and high­ly rec­om­mend­ed book.