Review of Hanukkah Nights

Hanukkah NightsHanukkah Nights
by Amalia Hoffman; illus. by the author
Preschool    Kar-Ben    24 pp.    g
10/22    978-1-7284-2883-3    $8.99
e-book ed.  978-1-7284-6921-8    $7.99

“1 light. / Special night. / 2 lights. / Happy nights.” A soothingly simple text guides young listeners through the nights and lights of Hanukkah in this counting board book. The main attraction here is the striking art: against a black background, each added flame is shown in a different radiant color, with white lines filling in a few more details. A final spread explains briefly how to create the varying types of marks used for the flames: “drip: Use an eyedropper to drip paint”; “crisscross: Use pencils, crayons, or chalk to make fine lines.” A bright little gift for budding young artists.

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

Shoshana Flax

Shoshana Flax, associate editor of The Horn Book, Inc., is a former bookseller and holds an MFA in writing for children from Simmons University. She has served on the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and Sydney Taylor Book Award committees, and is serving on the 2025 Walter Dean Myers Award committee.

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