Little ones up to age 8, along with their parents and grandparents are invited to cuddle down with milk and cookies, crafts, and a reading of The Cats on Ben Yehuda Street — complete with puppets — performed by children’s author Ann Redisch Stempler.

The DJCC’s Cultural Arts and Book Fest will present this free PJ party on Nov. 17 at Morris Home Furnishings in partnership with the PJ Library program, which provides free Jewish children’s books and music each month to families in the Dayton area and around the country.

Stampler, who has a passion for Eastern European folk tales, received the National Jewish Book Award for The Rooster Prince of Breslov, illustrated by Eugene Yelchin. She is also the author of Something for Nothing and Shlemazel And The Remarkable Spoon Of Pohost.

For The Cats on Ben Yehuda Street, the most recent of her six picture books, she teamed up with illustrator Francesca Carabelli.

The book tells the story of the friendship of two cats on Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv, Israel: a “little grey cat with a red collar and a fluffy white stray cat that brings two lonely neighbors together.”

All families raising Jewish children from ages six months through 8 years are eligible to sign up for the PJ Library program in the Dayton area.

PJ Library is funded locally with support from Marcia and Ed Kress. To sign up for PJ Library, contact Hilary Zappin at the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton, at 853-0372.

— Marshall Weiss

DJCC’s Cultural Arts & Book Fest presents Pajama Party Time with Ann Redisch Stampler on Sunday, Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Morris Home Furnishings, 5695 Wilmington Pike, Centerville. The event is sponsored by PJ Library, with local support from Marcia and Ed Kress, and the Jewish Federation. Admission is free. R.S.V.P. to Karen Steiger at 853-0372 by Nov. 13.

To view the print version of the November 2013 Observer, click here.