If You Decide to Go to the Moon
By Faith McNulty, illustrated by Steven Kellogg
Scholastic, $16.99
Ages 4-8 years
If you decide to go to the moon, and you’re a 2nd grader or younger, this is your travel guide. The familiarity of Steven Kellogg’s illustrating style matches the lift-off world, which appears to be just on the other side of a green field nearby to anywhere and anyone. And for astrounauts young enough to want games and books and peanut butter, that familiarity is comforting. Yet Kellogg also offers brilliant looks at the unfamiliar, the darkness of space itself. Faith McNulty’s text actually incorporates a great deal of scientifically accurate detail, but she has an ear for how children might see this new world, whether it’s the squeeze bottles or the lunar dust. The rocket ship owes more to a child’s imagination than to NASA, but the overall combination seems real and particular, especially as it asks the reader to think about what air and water do for us on this planet.
Four Sides, Eight Nights: A New Spin on Hanukkah
By Rebecca Tova Ben-Zvi, illustrated by Susanna Natti
Roaring Brook, $16.95
Ages 7-10 years
This book offers a new spin on the dreidel because it looks at the little toy top from so many different angles. Rebecca Tova Ben-Zvi stops to look at history, probability theory, an intriguing list of betting materials (including raisins, chocolate kisses and animal crackers), low friction and centers of gravity. After tempting our palates with suggestions for latkes traditional (made of potato, served with applesauce and sour cream) and not (zucchini, with marinara sauce and Parmesan), she offers a list of do’s and don’t’s with explanations. No one section is too long, so the overall effect is light, not lengthy.
Tacky and the Winter Games
By Helen Lester, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger
Houghton Mifflin, $16
Ages 4-8 years
Tacky’s back and, as always, not exactly marching with the rest of the penguins. Other penguins from Nice Icy Land are training briskly for the Winter Games. ” ‘Training?’ ” wonders Tacky, hopefully. ” ‘As in, choo-choo?’ ” Just imagine the “bobsledless” downhill competition and enjoy the scoreboard for the other teams, from Lowland, Highland and Funland. Tacky is odd, and not exactly aerodynamic, but as his teammates finally realize, he is “a nice bird to have around.” Fresh air for today’s sometimes overly competitive childhood.
Aunt Olga’s Christmas Postcards
By Kevin Major, illustrated by Bruce Roberts
Groundwood, $16.95
Ages 8-11 years
Every Christmas Anna visits her Great-Great Aunt Olga, and she wouldn’t think of missing it, though we can tell that her parents are worried that Aunt Olga is declining and will require more patience. There are hints of change, but Anna has a child’s skill at being able to enjoy the pleasures of the moment. A good book to share across generations.
Hanukkah, Shmanukkah!
By Esme Raji Codell, illustrated by LeUyen Pham
Hyperion, $16.99 Ages 7-10 years
Some readers might feel that this retelling of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is laid on with a trowel: “Old Man Scroogemacher was as sour as a pickle and had a tongue like horseradish.” He runs a waistcoat factory in the early 20th Century. His nephew is Moshe, not Bob Cratchit, but he has three bad dreams, presided over by three different rabbis, moving from Judah Maccabee to protesters after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire of 1911. Scroogemacher doesn’t rush out with benevolent armfuls to his nephew’s home (“What did you expect? That a leopard should change its spots?”), but he does become more fair. This blending of several traditions centers upon remembrance: “Good things happen from a little remembering.” Dickens, too, was sentimental, and painted with broad brush strokes in his seasonal tale; Chicagoan Esme Raji Codell and Dickens have the same social interests at heart.
