Twenty-five Purim Books for your Child

What is in your Purim Baskets? As author Nancy Churnin points out in her new board book, Purim Baskets, “That depends!” Don’t just fill your Mishloach Manot baskets with goodies like hamantaschen, fill it with books! Here are several of my favorite Purim children’s books.

What is in this article?

Basket of Board Books for Purim

This adorable board book introduces the idea of Purim baskets to the little ones. Parents may be familiar with the idea of mishloach manot, or the Purim goodie basket that it is delivered to friends, family or neighbors. Author Nancy Churnin points out that what is in the basket depends on the recipient. Her clever rhymes list fun pet toys in a gift basket and the page ends just short of the last word, leaving kids to finish the rhyme and guess the animal, pictured on the following page. The colorful illustrations by Amy Schimler-Safford are absolutely adorable. Nancy discussed this book at the end of her recent interview about Martin and Anne: The Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank

Little kids love playing dress up and they love stickers, making this interactive board book a great Purim surprise. This delightful holiday treasure explores possibility and creativity. In this story, a girl can’t decide what costume to wear for the Purim masquerade. There are so many possibilities. Kimmel’s rhyming story has the girl use her creativity to come up with her own unique costume. Kids will love the story and giggle at the pictures that show the dog gets into the act while she tries on different outfits. But the best part of the book is that at the end of the story the fun has just begun. There are four pages of reusable costume stickers that kids can use to dress up the girl. Just like the main character, kids can try different outfits and combinations. There is even a page with a closet for all her costumes! You can read more about this adorable book in my author interview Barbara Kimmel Chats about Purim Possibilites

Today I Am a Hamantasch: A Poem for Purim

Varda Livney
PJ Publishing 2026

Little children love to play dress-up. That is one of the things that makes Purim such a fun holiday. This sweet little board book has three cute colorful characters who explore Purim costume options. Varda Livney explores the idea with catchy rhymes and adorable illustrations show that no matter what costume they choose, “Tomorrow, I’ll be me.” The characters consider more than one costume. This tiny book is just the right size for little hands and kids will love the interactive action of the face showing through the cutout!

Happy Purim Grover

Joni Kibort Sussman, Tom Leigh ( Illustrator)
PJ Publishing 2026

“Happy Purim, Grover” is a perfect Purim book for Jewish toddlers. This book presents the familiar Sesame Street character as he celebrates Purim. Little ones see these adorable characters doing all the things that they would do on Purim. Joni Sussman has included the key elements of the holiday that are important to the little ones.

Ten Purim Bears: A Counting Book for Purim

Ron Atlas, Zach Horvath (illustrator)
The Collective Book Studio 2025

“Once a bear, sat on a chair. ” Ron Atlas provides a gentle rhyme about friends gathering together. Kids will love counting the bears on each page. The pages are bordered by two number lines, with the number words at the top of the page and numbers directly below the chairs. This makes it easy to see the numerals as children count the bears. Kids will also enjoy looking at all the Purim costumes in Zach Hovath’s illustrations. If you need a cute book for your little one, you can count on this.

Time for Hamantaschen

Madelyn Rosenberg, Raaya Karas (Illustrator)
PJ Publishing 2025

Time for Hamantaschen is a tasty little tidbit. This board book is a perfect introduction of Purim to toddlers. The catchy rhyme and delightful illustrations portray the Purim traditions that little kids love. There are children baking hamantaschen, preparing goodie gift bags ( in the tradition of Mishloach Manos) and wearing costumes. This short sturdy board book is ideal for the littlest readers.

Perfect Purim Picture Books

The Elephant and the Purim Crown

Haviva Kierzenblat, Rebeca Luciani (illustrator)
Kar-Ben Publishing 2025

This beautiful book tells a story that provides a glimpse at life of Jews in Burma in the last century. On her way to the Purim festival at the synagogue, Rachel decides to take a ride on an elephant that is draped in finery. At first, she feels like queen Esther, but when she notices the cracked and bruised feet of the poor animal she no longer feels like a ride. In this simple tale, she wins contest crown and offers the crown to the owner to buy the elephant. Her empathy toward animals, teaches a key precept of Judaism. This story is placed during Purim but it is not really a Purim story. The author notes in the afterward that Purim translates as “lots” and that the elephants of Burma had many different lots in life.

Esther’s Gragger: A Toyshop Tale of Purim

Martha Seif Simpson, Durga Yael Bernhard (Contributor)
Wisdom Tales 2019

Esther’s Gragger is a delightful Purim story that reflects the merriment of costumes and graggers, but reminds us what the noise is all about.  Esther loves her new gragger with the likeness of her namesake. When a bully tries to take it away, she stands up to him. She begins to make noise with her new gragger and others join in. Just like the noisemakers are used to drown out evil during the Purim story, graggers are used to drive away the bully. The young Esther stands up to the bully just as her namesake spoke out against evil long before. The afterward includes background on the holiday, current customs and graggers and even includes instructions for making your own noisemaker.

Hamantaschen or Latkes?

Kerry M. Olitzky, Ari Moffic, Ruby Silberman (Illustrator)
Dragonfeather Books 2025

Hamantaschen -Latke Debates
What is your favorite Jewish food? Two friends can’t decide. One is proud of the hamantaschen at her mom’s bakery and the other is proud of the latkes from mom’s deli. Both are good, but they each think that their own specialty is best. In Kerry Olitzky’s clever story, the girls try to settle the argument by getting other opinions. The afterward includes an author note about the real Hamantaschen -Latke Debates. The author discusses this book in his recent interview.

Just Like Queen Esther

Kerry M. Olitzky, Ari Moffic, Rena Yehuda Newman (Illustrator)
Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2025

This sweet book uses an unique premise to discuss confidence in one’s identity. The story is about a Trans youngster, who has chosen her own name, Atara, which means crown. She always wears a crown everywhere so that people will know that she is a girl. this is not really a Purim story. After hearing about Esther, who bravely told people that she was Jewish, Atara compares herself to the queen. They both had a secret about themselves that they revealed to the world. This book is a beautiful way to instill self confidence for LGBT children or any youngster who is worried that they may not be accepted for who they really are.

Kayla and Kugel’s Playful Purim

Ann D. Koffsky
Apples & Honey Press 2025

This sweet book uses an unique premise to discuss confidence in one’s identity. The story is about a Trans youngster, who has chosen her own name, Atara, which means crown. She always wears a crown everywhere so that people will know that she is a girl. this is not really a Purim story. After hearing about Esther, who bravely told people that she was Jewish, Atara compares herself to the queen. They both had a secret about themselves that they revealed to the world. This book is a beautiful way to instill self confidence for LGBT children or any youngster who is worried that they may not be accepted for who they really are. Learn more about the author and many of her works inluding the Kayla and Kugel series in my Interview with Ann Koffsky

Maddie the Mitzvah Clown

Karen Rostoker-Gruber, Christine Grove (Illustrator)
Apples & Honey Press 2017

This charming story by Karen Rostoker-Gruber tells the tale of how one youngster overcomes her shyness to bring joy to others. Maddie the mouse is very shy. When she visits her grandmother at a senior home, she can’t bring herself to speak to her grandmother’s friends, but hides behind her skirt instead. But she is intrigued by Giggles the Clown who cheers up all the residents with his balloon animals and silly antics. Maddie asks Giggles to train her and she learns how to clown around and entertain the sick and elderly as well. While learning to come out of her shell and speak with others, she eventually becomes self confident enough to step out of the clown shoes and be herself. The charming art by Christine Grove perfectly illustrates Maddie’s change. While not a Purim story, it is often shared at Purim. During Purim, we dress up in costumes which can disguise who we really are. Maddie hides her true self behind her clown costume and like Esther, she then shows her real self to others.

Max’s Mask: A Purim Story

Havvah Deevon, Itay Bekin (illustrator)
Kalaniot Books 2025

Max’s Mask is a charming story about being yourself. Max is who is nervous about starting at a new school, deals with his fears by always wearing one of his many superhero costumes. As a superhero, he can handle anything- even an unfriendly classmate. When the teacher tells the class the story of Purim, she teaches the kids that when we wear costumes for Purim, that like Esther, we hide our identity until we are ready to reveal ourselves. Max realizes that he no longer needs to hide behind his superhero suit, and that he can just be himself.

Meet the Hamantaschen

Alan Silberberg
Viking Books for Young Readers 2022

Three Purim pastries are also detectives and set out to find the missing megillah. Bright colorful illustrations and repetitive phrases tell the Purim story in a cute humorous manner. This book is prefect for preschool and elementary kids.

The Purim Panic

Laura Gehl, Olga & Aleksey Ivanov (Illustrator)
Albert Whitman & Company 2023

Three Purim pastries are also detectives and set out to find the missing megillah. Bright colorful illustrations and repetitive phrases tell the Purim story in a cute humorous manner. This book from the Ruby Celebrates series is a perfect Purim treat.

The Purim Superhero

Elisabeth Kushner, Mike Byrne (Illustrations)
Kar-Ben Publishing 2013

Elisabeth Kushner has taken the Essence of Esther’s story, to be brave enough to be true to yourself, and applied it to a situation that children today can identify with. Nate is tempted to give in to peer pressure and dress as a superhero, like all the other boys in his class. He comes up with an original costume so that he can be who he wants to be. This message of being yourself is underscored by the fact that he has two dads. This casual inclusion helps encourage acceptance for most readers and will thrill Jewish children with same sex parents to see themselves represented.

Purr-im Time

Jenna Waldman, Erica Chen (Contributor)
Apples & Honey Press 2023

This adorable book is the Purr-fect Preschool Purim Poem. Kitties do all the traditional Purim activities. I love a good rhyming book, and Waldman does a great job with meter as well as rhymes.. The illustrations are full of fun detail. Children will want to cuddle up with their kitties to enjoy the sweet tale.

A Queen to the Rescue, the Story of Henrietta Szold, Founder of Hadassah

Nancy Churnin, Yevgenia Nayberg (Illustrator)

Nancy Churnin writes biographies of important inspirational figures who are relatively unknown to the general public. In “Queen to the Rescue”, she wrote about Henrietta Szold. Churnin has written an interesting and informative biography about the woman who created the first night school for immigrant adults, the first Jewish publishing house, the women’s charity organization “Hadassah”, and organizing the rescue of over 1000 refugee children during WWII. Churnin’s books may be aimed at youngsters, but I find them enlightening and parents will learn as much from this book as their children.

Rembrandt Chooses a Queen

Kerry M. Olitzky, Deborah Bodin Cohen, Cinzia Battistel (Illustrator)
Apples & Honey Press 2025

This story begins with Rembrandt’s love of painting scenes from the Hebrew bible and often using his neighbors as models. It centers on Samuel, a Jewish boy who is apprenticed to Rembrandt. He is torn because he wants to learn to paint, but he also wants to continue his education at the Yeshiva. This lovely tale teaches the reader about both Esther and Rembrandt. But it also reinforces the Jewish tenet of the importance of education and emphasizes that one must be true to themselves.

Talia and the Haman-tushies

Linda Elovitz Marshall, Francesca Assirelli (Illustrator)
Kar-Ben Publishing  2017

In this amusing story, Talia’s grandmother invites her to help make hamantaschen (which translates to Haman’s pockets). These cookies are a special Purim treat. But Talia mishears her Bubbe and thinks that She has said Haman-tushies. Since tushie is Yiddish for one’s bottom, Talia doesn’t think they sound appetizing. While they are baking, Talia’ grandmother tells her the story of Purim. Combining the story of Esther with Talia’s story lets the reader learn the Purim story without it feeling like a history lesson. Like all the other stories in the Talia series, this one is a pure delight.

Purim Books for Older Readers

The King’s Horse: A Purim Story

Leah Cypess, Joni Aliza Boroda (Illustrator)
CreateSpace  2018

This unique book tells the Purim story from a horse’s point of view. This is a picture book aimed at older kids. It is a text heavy illustrated story that covers much more detail from the Book of Esther. But because the author chose to have the king’s horse narrate the story, the content and language will appeal to kids. it is an ideal Purim read for anyone eight years and up.

Rachel Friedman Is Not the Queen

Sarah Kapit, Genevieve Kote (illustrator)
Henry Holt and Co.  2025

Rachel Friedman learns about friendship in this amusing chapter book. She is so excited about Purim, and she’s especially excited to star in her Hebrew school’s Purim spiel! But when she discovers that her best friend gets the part of Esther, she needs to learn how to let someone else take center stage.

The Royal Recipe: A Purim Story

Elana Rubinstein, Jennifer Naalchigar (Illustrator)
Apples & Honey Press  2023

Elana Rubinstein has written a fantastic Purim chapter book that will delight young readers. Saralee Siegel has a super-sniffer nose that can detect aromas through time and space. This time, in order to make the perfect hamantashen, she sniffs out the aromas from the original Purim story and the results are chaotic. The party planner who guarantees that the Purim party will be authentic, takes over and demands all of Zayde’s attention. Saralee must not only save Purim at the Siegel house, but must also reestablish her relationship with Zayde. Rubinstein’s well crafted plot tells a wacky parallel Purim story about standing up to a bully, but goes deeper into the theme of what happens when family members disappoint. Once again saralee’s story is illustrated by Jennifer Naalchigar with clever black and white line drawings that bring the characters and chaos to life.

The Book of Elsie

Joanne Levy
Orca Book Publishers  2022

The book of Elsie has a modernized variation of the Purim theme of speaking out against evil. Elsie discovers that the Purim party will have to be canceled because the temple is in financial straits , and that the congregation may have to sell the building. She channels her inner Esther and develops a plan that may just save the temple. Unfortunately, she encounters antisemitism and prejudice along the way. The book follows the characters as they deal with many forms of prejudice. The main character is Jewish, her family is one with two fathers, and her best friend is black. Although the book has heavy themes appropriate for middle grade readers. it is a special book in that it follows a hi-lo format. Hi-lo is a term for high interest, low reading level. They are designed to be accusable to reluctant readers and readers with learning disabilities. They have dyslexia-friendly fonts, are shorter, and have more simple language. This makes it a great book for these readers. The book centers on a preteen protagonist, but it is interesting enough to capture the attention of adults too. I recommend this book for anyone ten or older at any reading level.