Chanukah, 0 Chanukah, Come Read Some New Stories The shelves are filled but are their contents worth reading? ir ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM AppleTree Editor ou're out there, and they know it. Chanukah, more than any other Jewish holiday, sounds the call to publishers: "Shoppers are looking to buy. Get books on shelves!" The question is, are they giving us stories we'll enjoy again and again, or just flooding the market with dreary, less-than-innovative, sloppy stuff? Here's what to look for — and avoid — when you find yourself face-to-face with the inevitable mass of Chanukah books. The Magic Menorah: A Modern Chanukah Tale by Jane Breskin Zalben, with illustrations by Donna Diamond. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, copyright 2001. 56 pages. $15. Many readers of Jewish books for children are familiar with Jane Breskin Zalben's nice stories about Beni the Bear. The Magic Menorah is .a very different kind of work and does not fea- ture Zalben's wonderful illustrations, but it won't leave anyone disappointed. The Magic Menorah tells of a boy named Stanley, who has everything any boy could want, except a good attitude. Stanley has no interest in celebrating Chanukah, no interest in being with family, no interest in anything except becoming a rock star and doing what he wants. Then he goes upstairs and discovers an old menorah. He begins to rub it a bit, and sud- denly there appears a genie who looks nothing like a genie anyone has ever dreamed of. Instead, he's an old guy in a rather dilapidated coat; his name is Fishel. But like most genies, Fishers job is to grant the wishes of whoever rubs the magic lamp — in this, case, the unpleasant Stanley. It won't surprise anyone to hear what Stanley learns: The things you imagine you want are not always what you really want, ancrsometimes . what you really want and need has, like Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, always been in your own back yard. In The Magic Menorah, Zalben has managed, and beautifully so, to provide us with something new (a delightful story) and something old (a familiar les- son). The result is a book you will want to read time and again. Chanukah Lights written and illustrated by Judith Moffatt. Published by Little Simon (a division of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division), copyright 2001. 12 pages. $5.99. This book is adorable. Printed on hard, thick cardboard, so it will happily be used by tiny hands for years to come, Chanukah Lights is a rhyming story of a family celebrating the holi- day: "Latices are fried in the traditional way. Yummy scents fill the room as they're stacked on a tray" . The pictures are nice and friendly and sim- d 11/30 2001 69