School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-This rollicking rhyme begins, "'Twas the first night of Chanukah and on the fifth floor,/There was holiday hustling and bustling galore." In the midst of it all, a dreidel escapes from a boy's hands and precipitates a wild chase out onto the street, into the country, and over the ocean, ultimately spinning into outer space. This humorous picture book introduces children to aspects of the holiday by using terms such as latkes, menorah, and the letters on the dreidel. Told in rhyming couplets, the tale holds storytelling appeal in both text and humorous illustrations. Chagall-like oil paintings and cut-paper art lend an Old World feel to the story. Although the author gives a nod to "The Night before Christmas" in the first and last lines, this story is really more akin to "The Gingerbread Boy."-I. A. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Set to the cadences of "The Night Before Christmas" ("Twas the first night of Chanukah and on the fifth floor/ There was holiday bustling and bustling galore"), Newman's (Matzo Ball Moon) verse narrative describes a runaway dreidel that finds a home in the night sky. The chief virtue of this forgettable tale may be its having occasioned more of Brooker's (Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street) idiosyncratic mixed-media art, oil paintings into which she seamlessly applies cut-paper photo elements. Everything in these illustrations is affectionately skewed, from the slightly oversize heads of the characters to the Brooklynesque street scenes occasioned by the boy narrator's pursuit of the toy. The dynamically dizzy world happily challenges readers to stay on their toes. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
