A board book adaptation of Roni Schotter's 1990 Hanukkah!, illus. by Marylin Hafner, gives youngest readers a chance to celebrate the last night of the holiday along with the five children of a particularly jolly family. Hafner's personable illustrations telegraph brio. (Little, Brown, $6.99 22p ages 6 mos.-3 yrs. ISBN 0-316-77623-8; Oct.)
Holographic foil candle flames enliven It's Hanukkah!, a board book original with pictures by Santiago Cohen, whose work can also be seen in the Christmas title Home for Navidad (reviewed below). Rhyming text ("Now all the colored candles blaze./ We happy children stand and gaze") alternates with the refrain "Do you know the reason why?/ It's Hanukkah tonight." (Handprint/Blue Apple [Chronicle, dist.], $8.95 16p ages 2-5 ISBN 1-59354-021-3; Dec.)
Lift-the-flaps conceal newly lit menorahs, contents of gift packages and so on in the board book Oh Chanukah! by L.J. Goodman, illus. by Liz Conrad. Cut-paper art shows a beaming family, including Bubbie, Gramps, parents and a brother and sister. (PSS!, $5.99 12p ages 2-5 ISBN 0-8431-0508-9; Sept.)
Dandi Daley Mackall, an author known for such Christian titles as those in the Little Blessings series, turns out Who'll Light the Chanukah Candles?, illus. by Keiko Motoyama, a paperback with rhyming text ("Vacuum's humming!/ Company's coming! Time for the Chanukah candles!") and more than 50 glittery stickers. (S&S/Little Simon, $4.99 paper 16p ages 3-7 ISBN 0-689-85025-5; Oct.)
Abby Levine and illustrator Paige Billin-Frye follow up their This Is the Turkey with the paper-over-board This Is the Dreidel. Rhymes set to the cadences of "The House That Jack Built" trace one boy's holiday experience and end with a "Goodbye to the candles, so brave and so bright;/ goodbye to the wonder of Hanukkah lights." (Albert Whitman, $14.95 ages 3-6 ISBN 0-8075-7884-3; Sept.)
In the Let's Celebrate series, Eight Lights for Eight Nights: A Hanukkah Story and Activity Book by Debbie Herman, illus. by Ann Koffsky, retells the story of Hanukkah and offers illustrated instructions for making menorahs, dreidels, latkes, holiday cards and more. (Barron's, $8.95 paper 48p ages 6-9 ISBN 0-7641-2600-8; Sept.)
The On My Own Holidays series offers explanatory information about different traditions in a format suited to beginning readers and in an impartial, instructional voice. Hanukkah by Cathy Goldberg Fishman, illus. by Mary O'Keefe Young, offers a detailed version of the Hanukkah story and describes how Jews celebrate. Also in the series is Ramadan by Susan Douglass, illus. by Jeni Reeves, and Christmas Around the World by Emily Kelly, illus. by Joni Oeltjenbruns, the latter originally issued in 1986. (Lerner/First Avenue, $5.95 paper each ISBN 1-57505-583-X; -584-5; -580-5; Sept.)
