Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1631277 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: School & Library Binding
• 32 pages

From Amazon.com
Polacco has a warm, colorful illustrative style that has enriched her numerous other works such as Babushka Baba Yaga and I Can Hear the Sun. Here she applies it to what at first seems the simple story of a Jewish girl, Trisha, and her Christian neighbors, whose bout with scarlet fever at Christmas threatens to ruin Trisha's Hanukkah. Trisha and her family respond with a loving gesture that is rewarded in kind.

From Publishers Weekly
Polacco's (Babushka's Doll) warmhearted memoir can easily be pressed into double duty for both Hanukkah and Christmas reading. On the family farm in Michigan, Trisha and Richard watch as Babushka and Grampa prepare for Hanukkah in their native Russian way, hand-dipping the candles, carving the children gifts of little wooden animals, cooking the latkes. When scarlet fever debilitates their neighbors, Trisha's whole family pitches in to make and deliver holiday dinners and Christmas trees (decorated with the children's wooden animals). Polacco's characteristically buoyant illustrations embody the joy of holiday traditions even as her robust storytelling locates the essence of that joy in sharing and friendship. While this work should have broad appeal, it is in particular an excellent choice for families seeking to mingle Jewish and Christian traditions. Ages 5-10.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3. Another lovely autobiographical snippet from Polacco. The story centers around Trisha and her family as they make loving preparations for Hanukkah, especially her Grampa, who carves wooden toys for the children for each day of the Festival of Lights. When several families in their farm community come down with scarlet fever, Grampa and Babushka realize that their neighbors won't be able to celebrate their holiday properly and take Christmas trees and baskets of food to them. The blending of the two holidays is touching and heartfelt. Polacco's warmly detailed illustrations enrich this tender tale about the true nature of giving, of being good neighbors, and of celebration.?Ann Cook, Winter Park Public Library, FL
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.