Sadie's Almost Marvelous Menorah

by Jamie Korngold, Julie Fortenberry (Illustrator)

Overview

When Sadie runs to show her mother the Hanukkah menorah she made in school, she trips, the menorah shatters, and she is devastated. But she finds that the shammash candle is unbroken, and a new family tradition is born.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781512493184
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/01/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	24
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	2 - 6 Years

About the Author

Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold received ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and is the founder and spiritual leader of the Adventure Rabbi Program. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her two daughters, Sadie and Ori.

Julie Fortenberry is an abstract painter and a children's book illustrator. She has a Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College in New York, and lives in Philadelphia.

Editorial Reviews

"The kids in Sadie's class are excited to make their own menorahs. While they mold and shape and paint, their teacher, Morah Rachel, tells them about the holiday. On Friday Sadie is thrilled to take home her special pink and blue creation, but she trips, shattering the menorah into "a million, zillion pieces." Luckily the shammash remains intact - a Hanukkah miracle! - and a new tradition begins. The family from Sadie's Sukkah Breakfast and Sadie and the Big Mountain again demonstrates how kindness and creativity can overcome small (but they seem huge) setbacks. Illustrations filled with Hanukkah cheer capture both the bustling and the quiet times of Sadie's classroom; light-infused pictures of the family at home radiate warmth." -- The Horn Book

From the Publisher

2013-09-01
The fragility of a child's lovingly crafted clay menorah highlights the symbolism of the candle-lighting ritual. At school, Sadie works hard to carefully sculpt and paint her clay menorah, featuring a raised, centered candle holder for the shamas (lighting candle) and flanked on either side by four lower candle holders. Proud of her blue-and-pink work of art, Sadie is eager to show it to her mother on the last day of the week. In her rush, she trips and drops the menorah, which breaks into "a million, zillion pieces." Through tears and disappointment, Sadie and her mom realize that while the shattered menorah is not repairable, the shamas remains perfectly intact and becomes "Sadie's Super Shammash" to light all the menorahs in the home each year. Korngold and Fortenberry's Sadie, of Sadie's Sukkah Breakfast (2011), is adaptable. She subtly demonstrates the importance of the ninth candle on a menorah, which is always set apart as the one to kindle the flame on each new candle each night. A combination of gouache and scratch art details the sequence of scenes and emotions, which range from happy anticipation to surprised dismay to satisfaction and pride. A lovely, realistic examination of one specific aspect of the holiday, this will spark discussion as well as inspiration. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews