OBERMAN, Sheldon. By the Hanukkah Light. illus. by Neil Waldman.
30p. CIP Boyds Mills/Caroline. 1997. RTE $15.95
ISBN 1-56397-458-7. LC number unavailable.
Gr 1-4 - A grandfather gathers his family around him, first to tell
them the story of Hanukkah and the Maccabees’ victory over the Syrians.
He also tells another story of Hanukkah, his own story of persecution and
hiding as a Jew during World War II. Unable to celebrate the holiday in
the open for fear of arrest, he tells how he fought the Nazis like the
Maccabees fought their oppressors. When he returns to his hometown and
sees the destruction the war has caused, he experiences his own miracle
– he finds his family's Hanukkiah (or menora) gleaming up through the ashes
- a miracle as precious to him as the miracle of the temple's oil. The
man's grand-daughter Rachel promises to pass on the stories in just he
same way to her own children. The prose has a poetic quality, and the impressionistic
art-work, done largely in pastel shades of acrylic, serves the story well.
The warm palette, the soft focus of the rounded figures, and the effective
use of shading capture the natural light in some scenes and the illumination
or the candles' flames in others. The colored backgrounds for the double-page
spreads have a dappled look of hand-made paper. Endnotes give additional
information on both the history and current traditions of Hanukkah. A solid
library selection.