Keeping the Promise: A Torah's Journey

A Yupik Eskimo village is the unlikely but memorable setting for this contemporary Hanukkah tale. Sara is accompanying her father, a traveling doctor who makes his rounds by plane, when bad weather prevents them from returning home in time to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. Instead, while Dad visits the clinic, Sara holes up with a Yupik woman and her English-speaking granddaughter, where they while away the storm by making shadow figures and telling stories-including the story of Hanukkah. An improvised menorah, the smell of assaliaq (fried bread) and the ``quivering bands of color'' of the Northern Lights are among the well-chosen details that give this book its certain glow. Ages 5-9. (Nov.)