Chil­dren’s

The Clever Dreidel’s Chanukah Wishes

Sarah Mazor; Mary Kusumkali Biswas, illus.
  • Review
By – July 12, 2016

Mazor uses a clever drei­del to present thought­ful Chanukah rhymes, ask­ing us to include every child in our Chanukah wish­es. This clever drei­del reminds us to not take our basic com­forts for grant­ed. Each night’s can­dle light­ing bless­ing gra­cious­ly reminds young read­ers to wish that all chil­dren should be for­tu­nate, have safe homes, warm beds, good food, cozy clothes and sta­ble health. An appre­ci­a­tion of what they have is gen­tly lay­ered into the rhymes, cre­at­ing an aware­ness and a mean­ing­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty for inter­ac­tion with young chil­dren. The clever dreidel’s goal is to instill the wish­es of love, peace, hope and bright futures for the chil­dren of our world.

Delight­ful illus­tra­tions by Biswas are engag­ing and pur­pose­ful, direct­ly link­ing the art­work to each wish. The posi­tion­ing of the can­dle light­ing on the chanukiyah is illus­trat­ed on the cor­ners of each page, pro­vid­ing easy instruc­tion in can­dle lighting.

This book would be a wel­come addi­tion to ear­ly child­hood and ele­men­tary school libraries and class­rooms as source mate­r­i­al for Chanukah and for fur­ther­ing the dis­cus­sion of mitzvot as well as for home reading.

Chris­tine Maas­dam holds a Mas­ters in Human­i­ties, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions in Muse­um Stud­ies and Cul­tur­al Prop­er­ty Pro­tec­tion. She is cur­rent­ly com­plet­ing her M.L.I.S. Her inter­ests are phi­los­o­phy and the impact of art and tech­nol­o­gy on culture.

Discussion Questions