The Eight Nights of Chanukah, by LeslŽa Newman, is a brief, colorful picture book that transposes another Christmas tradition to a Jewish key. Sung to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas, the new words enumerate all the accompaniments of Hanukkah: seven latkes frying, six dreidels spinning, five bags of gelt, four matzoh balls and so forth. Young children will enjoy pointing to and counting each item embedded in the cozy pictures by award-winning artist Elivia Savadier. She provides long-overdue scenes of religious Jewish life showing multigenerational families with a spectrum of hair and skin colors.
Joanna Brichetto negotiates Hanukkah and all Jewish holidays as a graduate student in Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University.
