On a Chariot of Fire: The Story of India’s Bene Israel
by Erica Lyons; illus. by Siona Benjamin
Primary    Levine/Levine Querido    40 pp.
9/24    9781646144341    $18.99

The Bene Israel, one of the “three largest groups of Jews in India,” arrived around 175 BCE. They were fleeing the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes just before “the Maccabean Revolt…better known as the story of Hanukkah.” Lyons’s tale begins with a nani (grandmother) telling her granddaughter about their ancestors’ dangerous sea voyage. A storm hits, and there are few survivors; those who do make it are welcomed to Alibag, India, a place where people “had their own religions, but respected the new traditions brought from far away.” Benjamin’s sumptuous-hued mixed-media illustrations swirl with color and movement in this story of an underrepresented aspect of Jewish history.

From the ">November/December 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.