Book Review: The Ninth Night of Hanukkah

 

Title: The Ninth Night of Hanukkah

Author: Erica Perl

Illustrator: Shahar Kober

Publisher: Sterling Children's Books

Review copy: Final copy via publisher

Availability: On shelves now

Summary: It’s Hanukkah, and Max and Rachel are excited to light the menorah in their family’s new apartment. But, unfortunately, their Hanukkah box is missing. So now they have no menorah, candles, dreidels, or, well, anything! Luckily, their neighbors are happy to help, offering thoughtful and often humorous stand-in items each night. And then, just as Hanukkah is about to end, Max and Rachel, inspired by the shamash (“helper”) candle, have a brilliant idea: they’re going to celebrate the Ninth Night of Hanukkah as a way to say thanks to everyone who’s helped them!

This book is not only a heartwarming and fun story, it’s also an invitation to join in a beautiful new Hanukkah tradition!

Review: I love the unique take this book has on the holiday. I've often read or heard about the story of the Maccabbean soldiers and the miracle of the oil that burned for eight nights, but hadn't really thought much about the shamash candle. I'm not Jewish, but really appreciated this focus on helping and appreciation for the helpers in our lives. This certainly seems like a book that Jewish families could enjoy, but any family can connect with being helpers and thanking or honoring those who have helped us. This is a story that has the warmth of family, community, and sharing and it feels like a warm hug. I would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for books about Hanukkah, but also for those wanting books about kindness, helpfulness, community, and appreciating those "who help heal the world."

Read Across America and World Read Aloud Day

Read Across America Fun!

Reading to students in MA

Our students read Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? to students all around the United States and we had others read to us too. It was a great day of reading. We connected with students in Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.

We even had a Mystery Skype with a school in Oklahoma and then they read to us too!

With one class in Maryland, we even took turns reading a digital book aloud. Soooo fun!

Many of our students also read Dr. Seuss with each other.

We also connected with some students from a school within our own county.

World Read Aloud Day

We had Skype visits from three different authors on World Read Aloud Day. Erica Perl, on behalf of  First Book, started us off with her fantastic book Ninety-Three in My Family. It was so much fun!

It was a book that can be sung so we got to sing and clap too!

She also showed first grade her awesome hats that go with her books Dotty and Chicken Butt. We loved them and want to try to think up a great hat for her book When Life Gives You O.J.

Of course, the students talked her into reading Chicken Butt before she was through.

Sarah Albee met with one of our third grade classes. We had video issues, but at least we could hear each other. She answered a lot of questions from students. We enjoyed hearing about her writing life. We have met quite a few fiction writers, but haven't talked with many authors of non-fiction so that was a new experience. We had read a bit from her book Poop Happened! beforehand.

We had a great time with Sarah Albee!

Our final author on Wednesday was Mina Javaherbin. She shared her book The Secret Message based on a poem written by Rumi many hundreds of years ago. It was neat to learn about her home country Iran and talk to her about her writing life. All three of our second grade classes were able to visit with her.

Our final author visit was on Friday with Abby Klein. She is the author of the Ready Freddy series. She read one of her books to us and I read an Elephant and Piggie book to her kindergarten students. We found out that she writes mainly in the summertime since she is a teacher. 

Abby Klein answered many great questions about her writing.

We finished off our World Read Aloud Day celebrations on with Shannon Miller from Van Meter in Iowa. She shared Same Same but Different and showed us the cool website that the author has for kids. I can't wait to read the book myself now. It fit perfectly with a non-fiction book we had read earlier this year One World One Day. It was an excellent way to end a week celebrating reading.

I loved the chance to connect with so many authors and classrooms around the country. We have another fun time to organize coming up in April for Poem in Your Pocket Day. I can't wait.

I am so thankful that people were able to connect with us and I am glad that Matthew Winner and Sarah (@pageintraining) helped to coordinate this fantastic event through Skype in the Classroom and a googledoc that held all of the plans for so many people. Thanks to all who added to our learning this week!

World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge #2

Last week I started the World Read Aloud Blogging Challenge. I didn't quite know what we were going to do, but now I have some pretty cool plans put together. We are going to celebrate on March 1st and March 6th-8th to spread out the fun. We have conferences on the 4th and 5th or we might have celebrated then too. On the 1st, we have 7 Skype visits scheduled with classrooms all around the country. On the 6th we have Skype visits scheduled with Erica Perl, Sarah Albee and Mina Javaherbin. On Friday another class will also get to visit with the author Abby Klein and maybe a few more classes. In addition staff and students will take the chance to read aloud to each other. It should be so much fun. I can't wait.

For this week's post, I need to finish five statements as I would have when I was ten and then again as I would answer it now. Here goes...

At ten: I think everyone in the world should read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Snowy Day.

Now: I think everyone in the world should read A Monster Calls and I Want My Hat Back.

At ten: If I could listen to anyone in the world read aloud to me it would be my mom.

Now: If I could listen to anyone in the world read aloud to me it would be Nick Podehl or Jim Dale, but mom would be cool too.

At ten: When I read aloud, my favorite character to impersonate is Dickon in The Secret Garden.

Now: When I read aloud, my favorite character to impersonate is Hagrid from the Harry Potter series.

At ten: The genre that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is realistic/historical fiction.

Now: The genre that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is realistic fiction.

At ten: The last book I wish I’d written or inspired me to write my own story is Little Women.

Now: The last book I wish I’d written or inspired me to write my own story is A Monster Calls.

These were actually difficult to answer and I think they would be different on any given day, but it was fun.