All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah
by Emily Jenkins; illus. by Paul O. Zelinsky
Primary    Schwartz & Wade/Random    40 pp.
9/18    978-0-399-55419-3    $17.99
Library ed.  978-0-399-55420-9    $20.99
e-book ed.  978-0-399-55421-6    $10.99

“When darkness comes, it will be the first night of Hanukkah, 1912.” This original picture book based on Sydney Taylor’s beloved characters serves as a perfect standalone Hanukkah read, or an inviting introduction to the author’s All-of-a-Kind Family middle-grade classics. Four-year-old Gertie wants to help her older sisters prepare for the holiday; latke-making, however, involves dangerous hot oil and sharp objects. A tantrum ensues from left-out Gertie, and she is sent to her room. But eventually, with Papa’s coaxing, Gertie emerges ready to help Papa light the menorah “for the first night of Hanukkah, for the first time.” Jenkins’s cozy present-tense text and Zelinsky’s thick-lined, expressive, color-saturated illustrations capture the happy bustle of a loving family amid lots of well-researched period details. Extensive back matter includes sources and a glossary of Yiddish terms.

From the November/December 2018 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.