Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah and so I thought I would share with you part of a post I did last year about how a few books brought magic to our Hanukkah celebrations...
...Bombarded by over-commercialized glitz, omnipresent through the month
of December, my older son used to really want to celebrate Christmas
(and yes! the bombardment of over-commercialized glitz can be a problem
even for families celebrating Christmas!) It did not matter how many
candles we lit or how many lovely gifts he received, our little Mr.
still wanted Christmas (or a commercialized idea of Christmas) until we
got some really great Hanukkah books. It was the magic of these books
which brought magic to our own family celebrations.
Our first and foremost favorite Hanukkah book is
Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins
by Eric Kimmel. What's not to love? A spooky, abandoned house, a
passel of creepy goblins and a very clever fellow who outwits the
goblins and lights the glowing candles of Hanukkah...
Our next favorite is ZigaZak, also by Eric Kimmel (more naughty goblins!)
And then there's this delightful story -- the Chanukkah Guest (thanks again, Eric Kimmel!)
For a bit of good natured humor there's The Best Hanukkah Ever by Barbara Diamond Goldin...
And also this clever book -- Malke's Secret Recipe by David A. Adler.
The newest addition to our Hanukkah book collection,
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming by Lemony Snicket, is seriously irreverent...
And finally, a story which is not necessarily for Hanukkah, but so beautiful that I had to share it -- The Treasure By Uri Shulevitz.
Wishing
you and your family a joyous holiday (whichever one you celebrate...)
May it be filled with light, love, laughter and... good stories!
Lovely books, Bloom! I will hunt them down to read with my wildebeests. We've enjoyed "One Candle" by Eve Bunting very much, and just checked out the beautifully illustrated "In the Month of Kislev" by Nina Jaffe. Thank you so much for sharing your world with us. Also, I adored your Hardware Store Hannukiah post - (was it last year?) One of your best creations. I hope you and your family have a delightful and satisfying Hannukah.
ReplyDeleteHas a year gone by already. Happy Hannukah to you all. Much love Clare Ross Huon and Thea xxxx PS yes still stitiching away merrily with another broken finger - 4th little finger on the right; only 8 more to go!
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