Kay­la is a young girl with the per­fect pet, Kugel, a dog whose enthu­si­asm for cel­e­brat­ing Jew­ish hol­i­days match­es her own excite­ment. Some­times his zeal leads to momen­tary detours in find­ing the right ingre­di­ents, but even­tu­al­ly Kay­la and Kugel togeth­er locate every­thing they need for a sweet Rosh Hashanah. Kugel’s dis­rup­tions are not ran­dom, and they all con­tribute to Ann D. Koffsky’s pur­pose of incul­cat­ing joy in Jew­ish life. 

Like any good teacher, Kay­la knows how to con­nect Kugel’s mis­takes to a pos­i­tive out­come. Charged with locat­ing apples to dip in hon­ey, the dog nat­u­ral­ly asso­ciates this essen­tial fruit with his favorite object, a ball. When he runs around in cir­cles, she reminds him that they will also need two round chal­lahs for their hol­i­day meal. Chil­dren and adults may be remind­ed of oth­er clas­sic tales for chil­dren where one event leads to anoth­er in a sat­is­fy­ing chain. Knock­ing over jars of hon­ey nat­u­ral­ly calls for a swim in the pond. This refresh­ing bath allows Kay­la to bring up the rit­u­al of tash­lich, when Jews toss bread in a body of water and think about their mis­takes of the past year. Although Kugel does not speak, Kay­la still engages him in implied con­ver­sa­tions: ​“Yes, Kugel, mis­takes like jump­ing into the pond.”

Koffsky’s warm and col­or­ful artis­tic style will be famil­iar to read­ers of the Kay­la and Kugel series. There is plen­ty of activ­i­ty, but it is not fre­net­ic. Instead, a few lines sur­round­ing the active pup­py denote move­ment, and a tum­bling pyra­mid of jars is accom­pa­nied by Kugel’s hap­py smile. Kayla’s braids also move like sem­a­phores, indi­cat­ing her response to every­thing from her dog’s dis­rup­tive antics to the arrival of her much-loved grand­par­ents. The sto­ry ends with a let­ter from the author to her read­ers, framed by her hands, one of which holds a ball­point pen. The note includes a glos­sary as well as thought-pro­vok­ing ques­tions about the sig­nif­i­cance of Rosh

Hashana. Koffsky’s high­ly rec­om­mend­ed book offers chil­dren an intro­duc­tion to tra­di­tions with­out nos­tal­gia, although par­ents and edu­ca­tors may see both ele­ments of hol­i­day obser­vance in Kay­la and Kugel’s story.