By
– May 29, 2013
Adorable Curious George and his friend, the Man in the Yellow Hat, attend a Hanukkah party. Each part of the celebration gets its due in rhyme and picture. Tots can follow the story from cover to cover or choose, in any order, the Hanukkah item they wish to explore from the handsome, very visible, and easily used tabbed pages of this nicely formatted, sturdy board book.
Tabbed topics are: the holiday in winter, gelt, menorahs, dreidels, latkes, gift s and mitzvoth, although mitzvoth are done on all days, plain days as well as holidays.
The poems deliver the information with meter and rhyme that threaten neither Amichai nor Bialik. The illustrations capture happy children with the fun-loving monkey drawn in the style of the Reys, his creators. George mischievously treats us to antics, after all, it is party time. The book is sweetly age appropriate in covering candles, prayers, food, cooking, presents, games, songs and fun. It is forgiven for omitting the violent history behind the celebrations. The sparkling cover will draw readers’ eyes to the seven tabs. Curious George is once again successful at making us happy, this time at Hanukkah. Recommended for ages 2 – 4.
Ellen G. Cole, a retired librarian of the Levine Library of Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles, is a past judge of the Sydney Taylor Book Awards and a past chairperson of that committee. She is a co-author of the AJL guide, Excellence in Jewish Children’s Literature. Ellen is the recipient of two major awards for contribution to Judaic Librarianship, the Fanny Goldstein Merit Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries and the Dorothy Schroeder Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries of Southern California. She is on the board of AJLSC.
