Chanukah Lights Everywhere

On the sixth night of Chanukah, my family takes a walk down the snow-covered streets. And guess what? Six other houses have menorahs gleaming in their windows!

On the seventh night of Chanukah, at my best friend's house, where he celebrates Christmas, a lamp with just one bulb burns in each window - seven altogether, just like in our menorah tonight. Dad says that Chanukah is also about the joy of different religions sharing a street.

On the eighth night of Chanukah, I find all seven stars in the Big Dipper, plus the famous North Star above us, as though God, too, were lighting his own menorah in the sky."

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Michael J. Rosen

Rosen's website identifies him as "author, illustrator, editor, ceramic artist, and companion animal to a cattle dog named Chant." He has authored more than 150 books for children and adults. Rosen's many awards and citations include the Sydney Taylor Book Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries, the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance Once Upon a World Book Award, and the National Jewish Book Award.

Melissa Iwai

Iwai is an children's book author and illustrator with more than 20 books to her credit. She uses both traditional media (watercolor, gouache, India ink, colored pencils, graphite) and digital software (Photoshop, Illustrator) in her illustrations. 

Iwai has a number of free materials for children associated with her book illustrations at her website.

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Wonder

In Chanukah Lights Everywhere the illustrations focus on the children's family and their traditions, as well as their home and neighborhood. Each night there is an additional candle added to the menorah with more lights identified around them -- by the end of Chanukah, the child is wondering about his heritage, "being Jewish in such a wide world of so many other lights."

The Jewish Festival of Lights holds a special place in our family: my daughters' Opa celebrated Chanukah with them by reading Kimmel's Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins -- complete with lots of different voices for the goblins and lots of laughter -- every year. They would then take turns lighting all of the candles on the menorah and everyone enjoyed the latkes! As they grew older, Opa also shared with them the history of the Macabees' -- some of the first freedom fighters -- resistance to Antiochus' desecration of the Jewish Temple. He had erected a statue of Zeus in the Temple and demanded the people bow down to worship it. When the Macabees defeated the Syrian troops they returned to clean and consecrate the Temple, but there was only enough oil to burn for one night. Miraculously, it burned for eight nights -- long enough to retrieve fresh oil.  My daughters, although not Jewish, know this story well through the love of a grandparent who wanted to share his heritage with them.

Picture book, 24 pages. A young boy & his sister count the candles on the family menorah and the lights they see in the world around them on each night of Chanukah.