School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4A grandfather gathers his family around him, first to tell them the story of Hanukkah and the Maccabees' victory over the Syrians. He also tells another story of Hanukkah, his own story of persecution and hiding as a Jew during World War II, unable to celebrate the holiday in the open for fear of arrest. He tells how he fought the Nazis like the Maccabees fought their oppressors. When he returns to his hometown and sees the destruction the war has caused, he experiences his own miraclehe finds his family's Hanukkiah (or menorah) gleaming up through the ashesa miracle as precious to him as the miracle of the temple's oil. The man's granddaughter, Rachel, promises to pass on the stories in just the same way to her own children. The prose has a poetic quality, and the impressionistic artwork, done largely in pastel shades of acrylic, serves the story well. The warm palette, the soft focus of the rounded figures, and the effective use of shading capture the natural light in some scenes and the illumination of the candles' flames in others. The colored backgrounds for the double-page spreads have a dappled look of handmade paper. Endnotes give additional information on both the history and current traditions of Hanukkah. A solid library selection. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
