Photograph by Mark Kocina

Michelle Gabriel of Saratoga recently cooked up two children's books, 'Rucheleh's Challah' and 'A Different Kind of Day.'

Saratoga author releases two books geared toward children

By Shari Kaplan

Writing books has become a family affair for author and longtime Saratogan Michelle Gabriel. The mother of three adult children and grandmother of five little ones has polished her storytelling ability over several decades of entertaining the youngsters of her family.

She's also engaged the help of her niece and nephew for the illustration and design of A Different Kind of Day, one of two children's books she just published. The other book is Rucheleh's Challah, inspired by her childhood relationship with her "Grandma Rose," as well as that which she has with her own granddaughters.

"I've spent 26 years as a professional writer," says Gabriel, who once freelanced for the Saratoga News and Los Gatos Weekly-Times and is now a freelancer for several local and national publications.

"In the back of my mind, I always thought it'd be fun to write children's books. I enjoy children, and now that I have grandchildren, I love reading them stories, and sometimes making up stories!" adds Gabriel, who has also penned Nathan The Needle and Other Stories by Rabbi Gitin and Jewish Plays for Jewish Days.

Rucheleh's Challah tells the tale of a little girl who learns how to make challah--the traditional braided bread eaten Friday night for the Jewish Shabbat, or Sabbath--by dutifully watching her grandmother. Rucheleh, a diminutive form of the name Rachel, is fascinated by her grandmother's intuitive knack for knowing--without a recipe--just how much flour, eggs, sugar and other ingredients to use. Gabriel too was once fascinated by this.

"My grandmother was always able to tell how to make the perfect challah. It took me a long time to be able to sense it," recalls Gabriel, who, like Rucheleh, eventually figured out the method by adding a special secret step of her own.

"I enjoy baking challah and sharing it with my family. It's a symbol of the past, and I feel good that I'm carrying on that tradition," she says

Indeed, the tradition comes full circle in her family. Gabriel learned from her grandmother because her mother wasn't very interested in baking. Gabriel says her own daughter and sons are too busy to engage in holiday baking, so she decided to teach the art to her young granddaughters. One day she hopes they too, like Rucheleh, will surprise the guests at a Shabbat dinner or other Jewish holiday, by serving their own homemade challah.

A Different Kind of Day, Gabriel's other book, was illustrated by her nephew Robert Hoffman, a graphic technician, software programmer and artist, while the unusual text layout and design was done by her niece Lisa Hoffman, an artist, photographer and graphic designer. The book follows the funny misadventures that begin as soon as the main character, a young boy, wakes up in the morning.

The family connection doesn't stop there. The inspiration for this rhyming, tongue-in-cheek book, Gabriel says, comes in part from the pranks her children enjoyed on April Fool's Day. On a more serious note, she says the book conveys to children that it's OK to have a bad day.

"We all have off days, where things just don't go right. We need to learn to see the humor in things," she says.

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