Ava’s Homemade Hanukkah
by Geraldine Woberg; illus. by Julia Seal
Preschool, Primary    Whitman    32 pp.    g
9/22    978-0-8075-0495-6    $17.99

For Ava’s family, Hanukkah tradition involves everyone bringing their own unique menorah (one is non-kosher) and telling the story behind it. Great-Aunt Sylvia’s, “made long ago by a silversmith in Poland,” was lost, then retrieved; Mom’s, made of tin, helped her cope with homesickness; Aunt Tamar (who married into the family via Aunt Rachel) learned of her Jewish ancestry through one that is generations old. Ava is determined to make her own menorah, but she’s not sure how or what her story might be. Cartoony digital-looking illustrations feature Ava’s fluffy pet bunny, Maccabee, to whom she has been narrating and whose presence helps her figure it all out.

From the November/December 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.