Runaway dreidel!

PreS-Gr. 2. With a mix of fun and fantasy, Newman offers the story of a Hanukkah dreidel with a mind of its own. The young narrator spins his holiday gift, and the dreidel takes off: through the living room, out the door, across the street past the shops, and into the country where it flies up to the sky and becomes a star. Early on, the rhyming text uses the rhythms of the "The Night Before Christmas," but then it wheels off into amusing couplets. Yet the words alone might border on the repetitive without Brooker`s fantastical illustrations taking them to new heights--literally. The medium is collage and oil paint, but the style evokes magic realism as time and place spin together. The characters are in Orthodox garb, and throughout there is an air of modern life and history melding. Sometimes the action seems like a dream, as the dancing dreidel moves chickens and Hebrew letters out of its way, and children suddenly gallop on horseback to a place where old-fashioned sailing ships glide on sapphire seas. A wild, evocative adventure. --Ilene Cooper

Set to the cadences of "The Night Before Christmas" ("Twas the first night of Chanukah and on the fifth floor/ There was holiday bustling and bustling galore"), Newman's (Matzo Ball Moon) verse narrative describes a runaway dreidel that finds a home in the night sky. The chief virtue of this forgettable tale may be its having occasioned more of Brooker's (Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street) idiosyncratic mixed-media art, oil paintings into which she seamlessly applies cut-paper photo elements. Everything in these illustrations is affectionately skewed, from the slightly oversize heads of the characters to the Brooklynesque street scenes occasioned by the boy narrator's pursuit of the toy. The dynamically dizzy world happily challenges readers to stay on their toes. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

K-Gr 2-This rollicking rhyme begins, "'Twas the first night of Chanukah and on the fifth floor,/There was holiday hustling and bustling galore." In the midst of it all, a dreidel escapes from a boy's hands and precipitates a wild chase out onto the street, into the country, and over the ocean, ultimately spinning into outer space. This humorous picture book introduces children to aspects of the holiday by using terms such as latkes, menorah, and the letters on the dreidel. Told in rhyming couplets, the tale holds storytelling appeal in both text and humorous illustrations. Chagall-like oil paintings and cut-paper art lend an Old World feel to the story. Although the author gives a nod to "The Night before Christmas" in the first and last lines, this story is really more akin to "The Gingerbread Boy."-I. A. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

'Twas the first night of Chanukah and on the fifth floor, / There was holiday hustling and bustling galore. Newman playfully uses the rhythmic pattern of Moore's Christmas poem in this variant of The Gingerbread Man. A runaway dreidel whirls through the house, the city, and the countryside, finally spinning up to the sky. The narrator, his family, and townspeople are illustrated in warm colors and set in a traditional Jewish neighborhood. From HORN BOOK Spring 2003, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Readers certainly don't need to be familiar with the poem "The Night Before Christmas" or with the alternative lyrics to "On Top of Old Smokey" (about the runaway meatball) to appreciate the humor of this Chanukah offering, but it wouldn't hurt. Owing its rhythm to the former and its plot to the latter, this hilarious take-off has a delicious flavor all its own. 'Twas the first night of Chanukah when a boy's shiny new dreidel makes a run for it. "It spun past a shoe store and past a boutique / It spun past two delis, one kosher, one Greek." When the dreidel leaves Brooklyn and heads for the hills, the scenery begins to look more like a Russian shtetl than anywhere in North America. Brooker's (Isabella Abnormella and the Very, Very Finicky Queen of Trouble, 2000, etc.) madly tilting, fanciful oil and cut-paper collage illustrations are wonderfully textured and full of fabulous details: buttons that look like Greek coins, shirts and dresses cut from wallpaper, and a gift for grandpa in a Tiffany's signature box. When the dreidel decides to go into orbit--"It sparkled and glittered and twinkled and shone / Like a jewel in the crown of a queen on a throne"--everyone goes home to celebrate the holiday. Naturally, Newman (Dogs, Dogs, Dogs, p. 738, etc.) ends with a nod to that well-known Christmas poem. A lively Chanukah romp that can be enjoyed by every denomination. (Picture book. 4-7)

/*Starred Review*/ PreS-Gr. 2. With a mix of fun and fantasy, Newman offers the story of a Hanukkah dreidel with a mind of its own. The young narrator spins his holiday gift, and the dreidel takes off: through the living room, out the door, across the street past the shops, and into the country where it flies up to the sky and becomes a star. Early on, the rhyming text uses the rhythms of the "The Night Before Christmas," but then it wheels off into amusing couplets. Yet the words alone might border on the repetitive without Brooker's fantastical illustrations taking them to new heights--literally. The medium is collage and oil paint, but the style evokes magic realism as time and place spin together. The characters are in Orthodox garb, and throughout there is an air of modern life and history melding. Sometimes the action seems like a dream, as the dancing dreidel moves chickens and Hebrew letters out of its way, and children suddenly gallop on horseback to a place where old-fashioned sailing ships glide on sapphire seas. A wild, evocative adventure. ((Reviewed September 1, 2002)) Copyright 2002 Booklist Reviews

Set to the cadences of "The Night Before Christmas" ("Twas the first night of Chanukah and on the fifth floor/ There was holiday bustling and bustling galore"), Newman's (Matzo Ball Moon) verse narrative describes a runaway dreidel that finds a home in the night sky. The chief virtue of this forgettable tale may be its having occasioned more of Brooker's (Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street) idiosyncratic mixed-media art, oil paintings into which she seamlessly applies cut-paper photo elements. Everything in these illustrations is affectionately skewed, from the slightly oversize heads of the characters to the Brooklynesque street scenes occasioned by the boy narrator's pursuit of the toy. The dynamically dizzy world happily challenges readers to stay on their toes. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) #

K-Gr 2-This rollicking rhyme begins, "'Twas the first night of Chanukah and on the fifth floor,/There was holiday hustling and bustling galore." In the midst of it all, a dreidel escapes from a boy's hands and precipitates a wild chase out onto the street, into the country, and over the ocean, ultimately spinning into outer space. This humorous picture book introduces children to aspects of the holiday by using terms such as latkes, menorah, and the letters on the dreidel. Told in rhyming couplets, the tale holds storytelling appeal in both text and humorous illustrations. Chagall-like oil paintings and cut-paper art lend an Old World feel to the story. Although the author gives a nod to "The Night before Christmas" in the first and last lines, this story is really more akin to "The Gingerbread Boy."-I. A. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.