The author and illus­tra­tor team also wrote How Do Dinosaurs Say Mer­ry Christ­mas? at the same time, so both have sim­i­lar mes­sages. A note at the begin­ning of each of these titles tells us that we say both Hap­py Chanukah and Mer­ry Christ­mas ​“with an abun­dance of love, joy, mem­o­ry and grat­i­tude.” In How Do Dinosaurs Say Hap­py Chanukah?, the rhyming text men­tions ​“the hol­i­day lights” and ​“can­dle­light prayer,” but does not explain the meno­rah shown in the pic­tures. Over­size dinosaurs tow­er over dif­fer­ent fam­i­lies and dif­fer­ent pets on var­i­ous pages, includ­ing one dinosaur hold­ing lit­tle tiny blobs that are sup­posed to be latkes but the author does not explain this tra­di­tion­al Chanukah food. 

The sto­ry needs to be read with one or two chil­dren sit­ting next to you, so they can see the pic­tures. That way the per­son read­ing the sto­ry can explain the sig­nif­i­cance of the meno­rah, and latkes. The pre-school class I read it to could­n’t see the extreme­ly tiny latkes or gelt. 

Chil­dren who love the How Do Dinosaurs Say…series will enjoy How Do Dinosaurs Say Hap­py Chanukah? and fol­low­ing the hol­i­day adven­tures of the col­or­ful dinosaurs. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 3 – 5.