Like a menorah shining in the window, a true Hanukkah treat.
One family’s observation of Hanukkah, told through eight poems, one for each night.
This unusually realistic and detailed window into a contemporary family’s celebration provides a mirror for Jewish children and a window for readers of other backgrounds. In addition to engaging in commonly depicted traditions like lighting menorahs and sitting down to a meal with extended family, these characters order pizza, untangle decorations, and use a hair dryer to melt last year’s caked-on wax off the menorah. And when an unexpected flat tire delays them, they make do by sticking candles into a banana balanced on the car hood. (The author’s note dubs this a “bananukkiah.”) Notably, overt gift-giving isn’t depicted, which will be especially appreciated by the many Jewish families whose traditions de-emphasize presents or don’t include them at all. Most of Snyder’s poems are told in second person; both the art and the sweetly simple language suggest that the narrator is the youngest child. Accordingly, the verse focuses on the child’s observations and sensory experiences. Each poem is followed by an informational sidebar covering a loosely related topic. These eschew basic facts and vocabulary for richer explorations such as rabbinic discourse and what time to light Hanukkah candles on Shabbat. Hatch's cozy illustrations lovingly render scenes of home and family with the feel of hand-drawn oil pastel. The main characters are light-skinned and dark-haired.
Like a menorah shining in the window, a true Hanukkah treat. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780063278141
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Not enough tricks to make this a treat.
Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.
Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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