Ava's Homemade Hanukkah

by Geraldine Woberg, Julia Seal (Illustrator)

Overview

A young girl learns about her family history as she creates her own personalized Hanukkah menorah.

In Ava's family, it’s a Hannukah tradition for each person to bring their own personalized menorah to a special gathering on the eighth night. Now that Ava is old enough to join in the fun, she needs to figure out what kind of menorah will best represent her. Will she be able to find the inspiration she needs from listening to her relatives’ stories?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807504956
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	09/22/2022
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	AD670L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Geraldine Woberg grew up as an only child and is always thankful to celebrate holidays alongside her extended family (whether related or not). Ava's Homemade Hanukkah was written just after Geraldine's family celebrated their first Hanukkah with a pet rabbit. Geraldine lives and works in Washington, D.C.

Julia Seal has illustrated more than one hundred picture books. She studied graphic design at Bath Spa University and worked in the greeting card industry before moving on to her dream job: illustrating and writing children’s books. She lives near the beautiful city of Bath, England.

Editorial Reviews

"Inspiring creativity and a closer look at personal observances of Hanukkah."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

08/12/2022

PreS-Gr 2—At Ava's family Hanukkah celebration, each person brings a menorah. Her mother lights the menorah that she received when she served in the army, while her grandfather's uses oil instead of candles. Rachel's aunts have a menorah that includes the shards of glass that they broke as part of their Jewish wedding ceremony, and her great-aunt treasures an old silver menorah from Poland. Bear figurines adorn Ava's uncle's menorah, and her brother made his menorah from ancient Israeli pottery shards. When she learns why each is significant to its owner, Ava discovers that "Hanukkah menorahs can't talk, but they can help tell our stories." She is then inspired to create her own menorah using objects and materials that are special to her. Bright, cheery illustrations depict Ava and her contemporary, multigenerational, and multicultural family. The holiday is briefly explained, and other traditions are mentioned. The narrative device of Ava's dialogue with her pet bunny rabbit is a bit awkward, and there's no real action, conflict, or suspense to the story. VERDICT With several other make-your-own menorah stories already crowding the Hanukkah bookshelf, this one may not stand out. See Karen Fisman's Nonna's Hanukkah Surprise, Lauren L. Wohl's The Eighth Menorah, Jamie Korngold's Sadie's Almost Marvelous Menorah, and Marissa Moss's The Ugly Menorah.—Rachel Kamin

School Library Journal

2022-08-17
Ava’s extended family members bring their menorahs to celebrate the eighth night of Hanukkah.

The girl decides to create her own menorah after she learns the story behind each special lamp. She tells her pet rabbit, named Maccabee (after the warriors who found the miraculous oil that burned for eight nights in the Hanukkah story), about their meanings. Pop-Pop’s menorah uses “corks that float in jars of oil,” often found in the Sephardic tradition. Aunt Rachel’s lamp is fashioned with a clear glass tube displaying pieces of the special glass ceremonially broken at her wedding with Aunt Tamar. Aunt Tamar’s traditional metal menorah was found by her grandfather in a box left by his grandfather. She tells Ava that she was excited to discover that she had Jewish ancestors, although she was not brought up as a Jew. Other relatives explain their menorahs, and Ava then makes her own menorah to remember people, places, a special event, and her family origins. The story reflects different aspects of contemporary Jewish life and could be used with other books that tell the story of Hanukkah as a festival of religious freedom. It would also work well as an introduction to a menorah-making activity. The characters are light-skinned, except for Aunt Tamar, who is brown-skinned, and Pop-Pop, who has slightly browner skin than most others, perhaps indicating Sephardic heritage. The colorful though pedestrian illustrations clearly show the details of each menorah. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Inspiring creativity and a closer look at personal observances of Hanukkah. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews