THE EIGHT NIGHTS OF CHANUKAH

Borrowing from the poetic format of the popular Twelve Days of Christmas, Newman has created a similar rhyme for the Chanukah holiday. This jingle begins, “On the first night of Chanukah / I clap my hands to see . . . / A present waiting for me” and then proceeds to add: two Maccabees, three challahs, four matzo balls and so on until all of the ingredients for a Chanukah celebration are included. A simple explanation completes the rhyme in an appended note followed by a glossary for the items mentioned. Savadier uses ink-pen lines with bright watercolor washes of cherubic young faces playing before a casually dressed assortment of adults. Perhaps this can be an introduction for a new yearly song to add to the season’s plethora of traditional ditties. (Picture book. 2-4)