The Miracle Jar: A Hanukkah Story
Written by: Audrey Penn
Illustrated by: Lea Lyon
Published by: Tanglewood Press, 2008
* In this holiday book Sophie and her family are preparing for Hanukkah. Her father tells Sophie and her brother the story of Juddah the Maccabee and the miracle of the oil that lasted eight days and nights. Similar to the problem of the Maccabees, Sophie's mother discovers that they do not have enought oil in their oil jar to make their eight nights of treats. There is too much snow to get to the store so Sophie suggests that they make their own miracle and try to make the oil last the eight nights. Every night mother makes a new treat including latkes, doughnuts, corn fritters, and fried apples. But will their oil last for eight nights?!
Only after reading this book (that's when I read the author and illustrator bio!) did I realize that Audrey Penn is the same author who wrote The Kissing Hand, a family favorite. I enjoyed that Sophie swept the floor and her brother polished the menorah as their Hanukkah gifts to their parents. I think it's nice that the focus wasn't on "things" as gifts. We read this book a few days before Hanukkah. My daughter has been inspired by the book and has requested that we make a fried treat every night of Hanukkah. I know we are making latkes and doughnuts but we may have to try this! My son made a comment, "they tried to make pictures but didn't finish" or something along those lines about the illustrations. The pictures look like water colors with some splotches of white. I told him that the illustrator wanted the pictures to look like that. Overall, we enjoyed this Hanukkah book a lot.
This book was borrowed from the library.
Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.
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