When Asher, a young Jewish boy living with his family in the Carpathian Mountains, sets out to fetch his mother an egg on the first night of Hanukkah, so that she can make latkes, he finds himself caught up in a most unexpected adventure with the local fairies. Freeing a trapped fox, he is led back to a mysterious house in the woods, where he encounters some magical capmakers. The caps they are making, as it turns out, whisk the wearer off wherever they choose to go, and Asher follows the fairies to Jerusalem, where he partakes of a most unusual celebration...

Published in 1993, Asher and the Capmakers is the ninth Hanukkah title I have read from the prolific Eric A. Kimmel, and the forty-fifth of his books overall. Many of his Hanukkah stories - Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, The Magic Dreidels: A Hanukkah Story, Zigazak!: A Magical Hanukkah Night - have a fantastic element, and this one is no different. Although this is an original story, it incorporates the "capmakers," as fairies are known in Jewish folklore, according to Kimmel's brief afterword. The story here was enjoyable, and I found Will Hillebrand's accompanying illustrations quite appealing. That said, I was so fascinated by the idea of "capmaker" fairies - this was my first time encountering them - that I couldn't help wishing for a traditional tale featuring them, instead of this original fairy-tale. Leaving that aside, this was an entertaining and magical tale, one I would recommend to picture-book readers looking for Hanukkah stories.

Addendum: Since writing the review above, I have had a chance to read Ruth Sawyer's This Way to Christmas, a folklore-inspired Christmas fantasy originally published in 1916, which features an inset story quite similar to this one. Sawyer's tale is taken from the Irish folk tradition - her nanny, growing up, was Irish, and her work often incorporates the culture of that land - and also features fairies with magical hats, who take the main character on a journey through space and time. Kimmel mentions in his brief afterword here that his tale incorporates Irish, English and Eastern European story elements, but I find myself wishing now that he had given more specifics, in terms of his source material. It's interesting to note that Jewish fairies, or "kapelyushniki," are so similar to those of some of the cultures in western Europe, and I found myself wondering whether the latter were an influence on the former. However that may be, the parallels are quite interesting. ( )

A folktale for Hanukkah

On his way to get an egg for his mother the night before Hanukkah, a young boy encounters a group of mischievous fairies who take him on an adventure to Jerusalem.