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.
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