Hanukkah Upside Down

Instantly, I was drawn to this book by the gorgeous cover.  Knowing very little about Hanukkah, I was keen to see what I could learn about it, especially when I discovered the book is about celebrating this Jewish festival in Aotearoa as well as in New York.

The author and illustrator portray beautifully that the two countries experience opposite seasons at the time of Hanukkah. It is summer in New Zealand, whilst it's winter in New York. Therefore, the activities a boy does in New York at that time of the year are very different from the activities a girl does in Aotearoa. However, they both participate in the same Hanukkah traditions such as singing the same song, lighting candles, eating the same food and playing the same game.

The illustrations are quite cartoon-like and unique. They are created using a combination of pencil, charcoal, and brush and ink with a cool colour palette used for the winter pictures and warm colours for the summer pictures.

Although I was introduced to the traditions, I felt like I floundered a little and at the end of the book I was left with plenty of questions - Is 'sufganiyot' like a jam doughnut? What is 'gelt for gimel'? How do you pronounce all the Hebrew words? A glossary and a pronunciation guide would have been extremely helpful.

This is a great book for introducing Hanukkah, but to understand it in greater depth the reader will need to search further afield.