The Festival of Lights: 16 Hanukkah Stories

To prepare "a sumptuous table before readers," per an introduction, Herz (I Am Gravity) and 15 other writers--including Alan Katz, Richard Michelson, and R.M. Romero--deliver 14 stories and two poems that highlight Hanukkah's global history and traditions. Delicious foods such as kugel and sufganiyot take center stage in Herz's "Der Verzauberte Löffel," while a non-Jewish "war orphan" working as a messenger in 1941 Bletchley Park finds comfort in lighting the menorah with her Jewish friend in Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's "A Light in the Darkness." Many entries detail the conflicting feelings young American Jews sometimes face regarding whether to participate in Christmas festivities: "A Hanukkah to Remember" by Nancy Churnin, "The Most Jewish Christmas Song Ever" by Erica S. Perl, and "Dancing on Hanukkah" by Nancy Holder touch on the music of the season and how many popular Christmas songs were written by Jews. "The Greatest Gift" by Joanne Levy, a tale about friendship and grief, and Terri Libenson's "The Mitzvah Tree," an illustrated rejoinder to The Giving Tree, go beyond the collection's slightly didactic feel to showcase stories that use Hanukkah as the setting, not the raison d'être. Ages 9-12. (Sept.)

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The collection is touching, funny, awkward, food-centric, and sometimes painful, collectively illustrating that Judaism is not a monolith. 

Sixteen acclaimed authors offer their varied perspectives on this joyous holiday of light and miracles. The common thread weaving through the entries is the celebration of Jewish religious and cultural traditions. —Kirkus