Mindel, Nissan. Eight Chanukah Tales. Illus. by Eli Toron and Shmuel Graybar.

Brooklyn, NY: Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, 2007. 78 pp. $10.95. ISBN: 978-0-82660-039-5. Grades 3 – 6.

This collection of eight Chanukah stories is an example of what not to do when publishing stories for children. The stories are didactic, clichéd, filled with incredible coincidences, wooden characters, and stilted dialogue. They take place in many different time periods and many different places—from East Europe to medieval Spain to ancient Jerusalem—with no apparent scheme for their placement.

With boring, careless design (Why divide G-d at the end of a line?) and unattractive illustrations, this book is an absolute last choice for Hanukkah stories. That is, unless you’re Orthodox and need to teach more than entertain. See Barbara Diamond Goldin’s While the Candles Burn (1996) or Eric A. Kimmel’s A Hanukkah Treasury (1998) for Hanukkah stories by master storytellers where the story is more important than the preaching. Not recommended.

© Anne Dublin.

Originally published in AJL Newsletter, Feb/March 2008.

All rights reserved.