Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah

This is absolutely the most wonderful book for introducing children to the holiday. I have read it to and with first and second-grade children for years as a teacher. The children are so enchanted and just LOVE chiming in after they "get" the pattern. They "incidentally" learn their ordinal numbers (first, second, third) as part of the fun. They just love Sammy and his mother and totally relate to his wishes for a dreidl! Then they are soooo happy that he gets his wish. A really heart-warming and beautifully illustrated story. I bought this book at Strawberry Banke in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. They have recreated a colonial village with actual homes that existed long ago. The Shapiro house is there! The Shapiro's were among the first Jewish settlers in America. When you visit Strawberry Banke, there are actors/guides in the homes, so we got to tour the home and speak with "Mrs. Shapiro" as she cooked her family's dinner. Though we searched and searched for Sammy, my daughter and I decided that he must have been hiding that day.

Reviewed by Leslie Granier and Nicholas Lopez (age 5) for Reader Views (10/07) Sammy Spider and his mother live on the ceiling of the Shapiro family's house. On the first night of Hanukkah, the Shapiros light one candle in the menorah and their son Josh is given a dreidel to spin. Sammy likes to warm his cold feet by the candles. He also enjoys watching the dreidel spin and asks his mother for one of his own. His mother tells him that spiders spin webs, not dreidels. Each consecutive night an additional candle is lit and Josh is given a different colored dreidel. Sammy keeps asking his mother for a dreidel but gets the same response. At the end of Hanukkah, Sammy is sad because he still has no dreidel of his own. His mother presents him with a clever gift - eight different colored socks (the same colors as the dreidels Josh received) each with a little dreidel spun on the end. Nicholas had no trouble recognizing the colors (except rose because it appeared to be the same color as brown) and liked seeing the names of the colors so he could learn how to spell them. He thought it was funny that Sammy could wear eight socks that were all different colors and was happy his feet would not be cold anymore. He was also happy that Sammy finally got the dreidel that he wanted. He was not thrilled with the illustrations of the Shapiro family's faces. (They were a little abstract). "Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah" is a good source for teaching young children about colors and numbers and at the same time explaining certain Jewish traditions.

This book is an ideal choice for very young children, as it portrays a fun and interesting view of Hanukkah that is very much in keeping with a small child's own perceptions of the holiday, namely, candle lighting, dreidel playing and latke eating. The story is simply told and the illustrations are colorful and reminiscent of Eric Carle's work. It is a quick reading book that my two and half year old enjoyed a great deal.

Sammy's First Hanukkah not only introduces preschoolers to Hanukkah in a way that is right on their level, it also reviews numbers and colors as well. A perfect book for the holidays.