"Festival of Lights"

Title: "Festival of Lights: The Story of Hanukkah"
Author: Maida Silverman
Illustrator: Carolyn S. Ewing
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1987
Genre: Multicultural, Picture Book
Grade: 2-3

The book begins by talking about long ago when all the Jewish people lived in the kingdom of Judea. King Antiochus ruled the land, but he wanted to rule Egypt too. So he sent his soldiers to the Holy Temple where they stole gold cups and dishes from the High Priest. The king became furious because the Jews fought his soldiers so he had the army burn down their houses and took many Jews away to be slaves. Antiochus ordered that the Jews could not pray and they could not keep the Sabbath a day of rest. The Jews began fighting back against the Egyptians. When the temple became ready to be dedicated to God, people came from all over Judea and danced, sang, and praised the Lord for eight days. Judah Maccabbee spoke to them and told them that every year at this time they would call the holiday "Hanukkah" (meaning Dedication).

I enjoyed this book because it allowed me to learn more about the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah. I think it is very important that my students become aware of other religions and their holidays. I think this book exemplified good multicultural literature because it presented cultural authencity because it was true and talked about the Jewish culture and their struggle with the Egyptians. I think the author writes from an outside perspective in this particular book because it was based a long time ago, way before the author's time. I enjoyed the pictures in this book. It looks like they have been painted. It reminds me of pictures you would see in a children's book of the Bible. I also liked this book because at the end it gave the legend of the menorah and the legend of the dreidle. It also gave the directions for making a dreidle as well as how to play the dreidle game. It also gave the song "Rock of Ages" which is a traditional song, sung after the Hanukkah candles are lit. It is meant to remind us of the courage of the Maccabees and how, with God's help, they fought for freedom.

I would definitely use this book in my classroom at the time of Hanukkah. I would incorporate it in a multicultural Christmas time unit. We could make dreidles and play the dreidle game. Younger students could color pictures of the menorah. I could also have my students make a journal and keep each culture that we study in their journal and have them write about what they learn about that culture.