Chil­dren’s

Fan­tas­tic Foto Hunt: Chanukah

The Judaica Press
  • Review
By – March 14, 2012
Six­teen pairs of near­ly iden­ti­cal pho­tographs offer a series of Chanukah-themed visu­al chal­lenges. In each pair, there are eight dif­fer­ences between the two pho­tos. While some changes will be spot­ted quick­ly, many are quite sub­tle and can only be found upon close exam­i­na­tion. Some are per­haps over­ly sub­tle, as in the close-up latke mon­tage where the changes con­sist of tiny dif­fer­ences in pota­to scrap­ings. The style of the pho­tos ranges from fes­tive (hanukkiot and gelt) to his­tor­i­cal (an ele­phant stat­ue) to abstract (a drei­del mon­tage). The rather weak rhyming cou­plets that invite read­ers to seek the eight changes on each page give no hints, but an answer key is includ­ed at the back of the book, along with a page of basic Chanukah facts. Read­ers with keen eye­sight and much patience will find this an enter­tain­ing addi­tion to the Chanukah book­shelf. Ages 5 – 10.
Hei­di Estrin is librar­i­an for the Feld­man Chil­dren’s Library at Con­gre­ga­tion B’nai Israel in Boca Raton, FL. She is a past chair of the Syd­ney Tay­lor Book Award Com­mit­tee for the Asso­ci­a­tion of Jew­ish Libraries.

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