Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins

by Eric Kimmel, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

Read November 11th, 2008

Do you know how little I was looking forward to reading this books.  The cover illustration and title alone were enough to turn me away.  However, I decided we would try to read all the Caldecotts, so we had to give it a go.

Okay, so we read it today and to my surprise, I actually liked it!  Unlike some of the other Jewish legend stories that we have been reading, this one was not inappropriate for children. (Sorry to all in the Jewish religion!)  I had to pull this one, Shadow and Jumanji out of the stack since my daughter keeps avoiding them and we are out of renewals.  So out of the three we read today, two good and one not so good.  Not too bad!

The goblins are not scary.  They are very cartoonish and silly.  They fall for silly pranks that Herschel sets up and their plans to foil Hannukah are ruined.  The only one that is mildly scary is the King of the Goblins.

It is a story of a man who is devout in his religion and uses his faith to overcome. 

This book won the 1990 Caldecott Honor.