If you know author Joanne Rocklin from Strudel Stories
please don’t get your hopes up too far. While Streudel Stories is a lovely set of short stories about different generations of a Jewish family, this is really just a “for fun” book. Nonetheless, it has its place, as Christian children have a huge selection of Christmas themed books, this is a great alternative to a child who is looking for something light to read about Hanukkah. This tells the story of Danny and his family’s Hanukkah celebrations along with how Danny overcame his fear of dogs. Nothing earth-shatteringly interesting here, but as I said before, there are a million Christmasy chapter books out there, here’s a light read for advanced second graders or on level third graders who want a Hanukkah chapter book.
This book expects readers to have a fairly in depth knowledge of Hanukkah. Although it has a fairly detailed retelling of the Hanukkah story, there are many parts of this book that will require explanation if you are not familiar with Jewish culture and history.
In the first chapter there is the Hanukkah blessing, which you can hear here. The only difference between the printed version in the book and the recited version I linked to is the end of the blessing, which on the recording is lhadlik ner Hanukkah, and in the book is lhadlik ner shel Hanukkah.
You’ll need much of your Hanukkah vocabulary that I introduced in The Latke That Wouldn’t Stop Screaming:
Necessary words pertaining to Hanukkah:
Antiochus pronounced An-tie-uh-cuss – King of the Syrians
dreidel pronounced dray’-dull – for more info see here.
gelt – pronounced to rhyme with melt – gelt means money in Yiddish, and at Hanukkah reers to the coins (often chocolate covered in foil) that are given to children.
latke pronounced lot’-kuh – a potato pancake
Mattathius pronounced Mat-uh-thigh-us – Jewish man who fled to the mountains and caves with his sons (one of whom was Judas who would lead the Jewish resistance).
menorah pronounced muh-nor’-ah – most people use this term to refer to the holder of the 9 candles lit to celebrate Hanukkah, but a more thorough explanation is here. Technically a menorah is any candelabra/candle holder whereas one used specifically for Hanukkah would be a hanukkiyah.
hanukkiyah pronounced hahn-new-kee-uh – a Hanukkah menorah.
Maccabees pronounced mack’-uh-bees – the Jewish rebel army that was victorious against the Syrians.
shammas pronounced shah-mahsh’ – the candle in the menorah that you use to light the other candles
sufganiyot – jelly doughnuts
Torah – pronounced Tore’-uh – Jewish scripture, for a more detailed explanation see here.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – A cat has kittens.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – Maccabee soldiers carry swords.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – As with most retellings of the Hanukkah story, this does mention a battle and that the Maccabees were victorious. It also tells of the temple being smashed. Daniel is afraid of dogs because he was bitten by a dog.
