Children’s book author Stephanie Spinner got it right when she named her new Chanukah book “It’s a Miracle!”
She’s come up with a rare gem: A thoroughly Jewish storybook that is laced with humor and warmth, contemporary enough to appeal to today’s kids and funny enough to elicit an out-loud laugh from an adult reader. Cute, color illustrations add to the book’s charm.
Definitely put this one high on your holiday reading and/or gift list.
Also mildly appealing is another new book, “Who’ll Light the Chanukah Candles?” Designed for preschoolers ages 3 and up, this one is more of a picture book with rhyme — probably quite appropriate in its simplicity for such a young age group.
Both new releases go beyond the call of duty, however, by including an age-appropriate appendix of sorts, with useful Chanukah factoids and a glossary of related terms. “It’s a Miracle!” also includes three Chanukah blessings — each in Hebrew, English and transliteration, and a one-page account of “the Hanukkah legend.”
A large hardcover for ages 4 to 8, “It’s a Miracle!” is full of colorful characters. But the two central figures are the boy Owen Block, the “new O.C.L. — The Official Candle Lighter” in his family and Grandma Karen, who wears cowboy boots with her dresses and feeds Owen nightly bedtime stories.
Her stories are wacky and wonderful and reveal previously hidden truths about the past lives of Owen’s parents, cousins, aunts and uncles, and even Grandma Karen herself. Owen doesn’t get it at first, but all the pieces fit together on the eighth night of Chanukah, when all the characters show up for candlelighting and a festive dinner.
Author Spinner also deserves credit for including repetitive family ritual, which children crave and need. For example, on every night of Chanukah, Grandma Karen tucks Owen into bed and asks, “Ready for a story?”
“Definitely,” he routinely replies.
Between the inventive bedtime stories, which for the most part are a kick, and the main storyline, “It’s a Miracle!” makes for wonderful holiday reading. And the narrative is perfectly complemented by the sweetly emotive pictures of Jill McElmurry. The non-Jewish illustrator strikes the right balance, explaining on the book jacket: “Working on ‘It’s a Miracle!’ gave me the chance to step for a moment into the warm light of Hanukkah in a fun way.”
Far simpler in scope is “Who’ll Light the Chanukah Candles?” Written by Dandi Daley Mackall, it recounts a little girl’s anticipatory wait to light the candles on her family’s menorah. It begins:
“I’m running home this wintry eve —
Straight from school, the first to leave.
Vacuum’s humming!
Company’s coming!
Time for the Chanukah candles!”
Though the plot is fairly predictable, as a package the slim paperback with peopled illustrations by Keiko Motoyama will probably be a hit with little kids. After all, it’s got a bonus: a full page of “prismatic,” pull-off stickers — candles, gelt, dreidels and other symbols of the popular Jewish holiday.
And to make things easy for the adult reader, the book also offers a boiled-down synopsis of the Chanukah story, plus an illustrated glossary of terms such as “shamash,” “menorah” and “latke.”
All in all, one can’t go wrong with either Chanukah book.
“It’s a Miracle!” by Stephanie Spinner (48 pages, Atheneum Books, $16.95).
“Who’ll Light the Chanukah Candles?” by Dandi Daley Mackall (16 pages, Little Simon Books, $4.95).