Is It Hanukkah Yet? is a delightful holiday book for adults to read to younger children or for beginning readers to read on their own. The text and pictures move the readers along, from the outdoor picture clues showing that winter and Hanukkah are on their way to the warmth of the family home with Hanukkah preparations and glowing candles, the singing of holiday songs and the spinning of dreidels to show that Hanukkah is here.
The illustrations are sweet and include cuddly animals as well as a multi-generational family. The simple, rhyming language, supported by the images, as well as the repetition of the refrain, “Hanukkah is on its way,” makes this an especially inviting story for early readers.
Paula Chaiken has worked and volunteered in a variety of capacities in the Jewish world — teaching in religious school, curating at the Spertus Museum, and serving on the boards of her JCC and Temple — for more than twenty-five years. The author of I Know Grandpa (Timber Grove Press, 2015), she also runs a boutique public relations consulting firm.
