Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah

Written by Sylvia A. Rouss

Narrated by Intuitive

Sammy Spider watches longingly as Josh Shapiro lights another candle and receives another brightly-colored dreidel each night of Hanukkah.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lerner
• Release date: Jan 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512443929

Sylvia A. Rouss

Sylvia A. Rouss is an award-winning author and early childhood educator, and the creator of the popular Sammy Spider series, celebrating its 25th anniversary with over half a million Sammy Spider books sold. She lives in California.

Reviews for Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah

[mspisa1-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I completely adored this book. The first reason I loved this book is for its skillful use of text placement. Throughout the book, there are pages where text is placed on the pages in the typical format, running left to right, line after line. However, on other pages, the text is scattered around the page, outlining and weaving through the illustrations. This makes the reader’s eyes dance around the page and, for children, makes the pages more fun and interesting to look at. This can also show children how to read text when it is not placed on the page in a typical fashion. I also liked this book for its connection between the text and illustrations. Each time another candle was lit on the menorah, the son in the story received another dreidel, each a different color. As the color changed, each page showed the different colored dreidel and, right next to the spinning toy, was the name of the color, written in the color of the dreidel. This helps the reader better understand what they are reading, and makes the book more interactive and eye catching, Overall, the big idea of the book is to educate children on some traditions of the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah. Children reading the book may know of the word dreidel, but not necessarily know what it looks like or what it is used for. This book enlightens the reader on both of those aspects and other traditions such as eating latkes, lighting the candles of the menorah, and giving a gift one each of the eight each day of Hanukkah.

[raizel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Teaches colors and numbers from 1 to 8 and a little bit about Hanukkah and the fact that spiders are not Jewish and hence do not observe the holiday. Although, finally Sammy has the chance to spin dreidels his own way. A bit long to read aloud to young children. Getting them to repeat the refrain for each day helps. The illustrations are nice and colorful. Using rose and red as two of the eight colors seems a bit of a stretch. Presents are minimal and more emphasis on the rituals of the holiday than its history or meaning, so acceptable to any level of observance.