The best Hanukkah books for kids do one of two jobs. Some are about the night at home: the candles, the dreidel, the latkes, the grandmother at the stove. Others tell the Maccabee story, the history the holiday remembers. Under five, the first kind is the one that lands. From five, children want the second.
This list gives you eight books, one for each night, in age order. Night one is a lift-the-flap board book for a baby. Night eight is a Caldecott Honor folk tale for a child who likes to be a little scared. For every book you get the year, the ages, the format, and whether it tells the history or stays at the table.
What is Hanukkah, in one sentence a child can hold?#
Hanukkah is the eight-night Jewish festival of lights. According to My Jewish Learning's Hanukkah 101, it celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE, and it is kept with a candelabrum to which one candle is added each night until all eight are burning. On most menorahs a ninth candle, the shamash or helper, lights the others.
For a three-year-old, that last part is the whole holiday: one more light every night. It is countable, it happens in front of them, and it is the same every evening. That is why the books that work at three are about the candles, and the books about the history wait a couple of years.
Which Hanukkah book should we read on which night?#
| Night | Book | Ages | Format | What it is about |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Where Is Baby's Dreidel? (2007) | 1–4 | Lift-the-flap board book | The night at home |
| 2 | Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah (1993) | 2–5 | Picture book | The night at home |
| 3 | Latkes and Applesauce (1989) | 3–7 | Picture book | The night at home |
| 4 | Hanukkah Bear (2013) | 3–8 | Picture book, board book | The night at home |
| 5 | The Ninth Night of Hanukkah (2020) | 4–8 | Picture book | Neighbours |
| 6 | Hanukkah Upside Down (2023) | 4–8 | Picture book | Family far away |
| 7 | The Story of Hanukkah (2011) | 5–8 | Picture book | The Maccabee story |
| 8 | Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins (1989) | 5–9 | Picture book | A folk tale |
An opinion, and most lists disagree with it: a book about the history is not the more serious choice for a preschooler. The Maccabee story is a war, a desecrated Temple and a miracle of oil, and a four-year-old can hold the oil but not the rest. A book where a bear eats all the latkes teaches them more about Hanukkah, because it is about the thing they will actually do on the night: light, spin, eat, laugh.
Hanukkah books for babies and toddlers#
Night 1: Where Is Baby's Dreidel?#
- Written by
- Karen Katz
- First published
- 2007
- Ages
- 1–4
- Format
- Lift-the-flap board book
Karen Katz, published by Little Simon in 2007. It's Hanukkah, Baby wants to spin the dreidel, and the dreidel is missing. Each flap the child lifts hides one of the holiday's symbols while Baby keeps looking.
It is the same hide-and-find shape as the Katz books a toddler may already know, which is the point: a one-year-old does not need the holiday explained, they need it named. One thing under each flap, said out loud, and the flap does the rest.
Read it if your child is under two, or this is their first Hanukkah.
Night 2: Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah#
- Written by
- Sylvia A. Rouss
- Illustrated by
- Katherine Janus Kahn
- First published
- 1993
- Ages
- 2–5
- Format
- Picture book
Sylvia A. Rouss, illustrated by Katherine Janus Kahn, Kar-Ben, 1993. Sammy Spider watches from his web as Josh Shapiro lights another candle and gets another brightly coloured dreidel every night. "Spiders don't spin dreidels," says his mother. "Spiders spin webs." On the last night, Sammy gets a spinning surprise of his own.
This is the counting book of the list. Each night adds a candle and a new colour, so a two- or three-year-old can count along and name the colour of the new dreidel before you turn the page.
Read it if your child is has started counting everything.
Hanukkah books for preschoolers#
Night 3: Latkes and Applesauce#
- Written by
- Fran Manushkin
- Illustrated by
- Kris Easler
- First published
- 1989
- Ages
- 3–7
- Format
- Picture book
Fran Manushkin, first published in 1989 and reissued by Charlesbridge in 2022 with new pictures by Kris Easler. A blizzard buries the Menash family's town before they can gather potatoes and apples, so there will be no latkes and no applesauce this Hanukkah. Then a stray dog and a stray cat turn up at the door, and the family shares what little they have.
It is a book about kindness when there is not much to go round, which is closer to the holiday's heart than a book about presents. By the end the dog is called Latke, the cat is called Applesauce, and it is the two of them who save the day.
Read it if you want a book that is about sharing rather than getting.
Night 4: Hanukkah Bear#
- Written by
- Eric A. Kimmel
- Illustrated by
- Mike Wohnoutka
- First published
- 2013
- Ages
- 3–8
- Format
- Picture book and board book
Eric A. Kimmel, illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka, Holiday House, 2013. Bubba Brayna makes the best latkes in the village, and on the first night the smell wakes a bear from his winter sleep. Bubba Brayna does not see or hear very well, so she takes the bear for the rabbi, invites him in to play dreidel and light the menorah, and feeds him every latke she has.
This is the funniest book on the list, and the one to choose if you only buy one. The joke works because the child knows it is a bear and Bubba Brayna does not, and every page lets them be the one who knows. According to its publisher, Holiday House, it won the 2013 National Jewish Book Award for an illustrated children's book. A board edition followed in 2020, so it works from three.
Read it if your child likes being in on the joke.
Night 5: The Ninth Night of Hanukkah#
- Written by
- Erica S. Perl
- Illustrated by
- Shahar Kober
- First published
- 2020
- Ages
- 4–8
- Format
- Picture book
Erica S. Perl, illustrated by Shahar Kober, 2020. Max and Rachel's family has moved into a new apartment, and the box with the menorah, the candles and the dreidels is lost. Every night a different neighbour helps out with something that stands in for the real thing. So the children invent a ninth night, to thank them all.
The book's quiet idea is the shamash, the helper candle that lights the others. It turns that candle into a way of saying thank you to the people who helped. It is the best book here for a family that has just moved, and for a building or a street where not everyone keeps Hanukkah.
Read it if your Hanukkah involves neighbours, or a new home.
Night 6: Hanukkah Upside Down#
- Written by
- Elissa Brent Weissman
- Illustrated by
- Omer Hoffmann
- First published
- 2023
- Ages
- 4–8
- Format
- Picture book
Elissa Brent Weissman, illustrated by Omer Hoffmann, Abrams, 2023. Two cousins, one in New York and one in New Zealand, decide to find out whose Hanukkah is better: a winter one with snow and hot chocolate, or a summer one with hot chips and cannonballs into the water. Night after night they compare, and work out how much of the holiday they share.
It was a 2024 Sydney Taylor Book Award honor book, according to the American Library Association's announcement, the award the Association of Jewish Libraries gives for children's books about Jewish life. It is also the only book here that shows a child the holiday is not tied to snow.
Read it if you have family far away, or you have a child who asks why it is summer somewhere in December.
Hanukkah books for kids five and up#
Night 7: The Story of Hanukkah#
- Written by
- David A. Adler
- Illustrated by
- Jill Weber
- First published
- 2011
- Ages
- 5–8
- Format
- Picture book
David A. Adler, illustrated by Jill Weber, Holiday House, 2011. This is the history, told plainly: the Maccabees, the Temple in Jerusalem, and the oil that should have lasted one day and lasted eight. It ends with how the holiday is kept today, with a latke recipe and the rules of dreidel at the back.
Adler tells it in short, plain sentences beside bright paintings, which is the right register for five. It is the book to read on the night your child first asks why there are eight candles.
Read it if your child has started asking where the holiday comes from.
Night 8: Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins#
- Written by
- Eric A. Kimmel
- Illustrated by
- Trina Schart Hyman
- First published
- 1989
- Ages
- 5–9
- Format
- Picture book
Eric A. Kimmel, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, Holiday House, 1989. Goblins have stopped a village from celebrating Hanukkah, so the trickster Hershel of Ostropol spends the eight nights outwitting them, a bigger goblin each night, until the King of the Goblins arrives on the last. It received a 1990 Caldecott Honor, according to the American Library Association.
This is where we disagree with almost every list. Hershel is the most recommended Hanukkah book there is, and its publisher bands it from four. But Hyman's goblins are drawn to frighten, and the King of the Goblins on the final pages is genuinely scary. For a brave six-year-old it is the best book on this list. For a four-year-old at bedtime it is the wrong one. Save it for night eight, and for the year they ask for a scary story.
Read it if your child is five or older and likes clever heroes and a bit of fright.
How do I read Hanukkah books aloud so they stick?#
- Read by the window, after the candles. Hanukkah candles are lit to be looked at, so read while they are burning and let the book and the menorah share the light.
- Count with them. Every book here has a number in it somewhere, and the candles in the window give a toddler something real to count against the page.
- Let the joke be theirs. In Hanukkah Bear, pause before Bubba Brayna speaks to the "rabbi". The child will tell you it is a bear.
- Keep the history for later in the week. If you read Adler, read it on a night when there is time for questions, not on the first night when everyone is excited.
What to read next#
- The wider shelf → the best children's books of all time, sorted by age.
- A house that also keeps Christmas → the best children's Christmas books, including the quiet ones for December without Christmas.
- A grandparent giving the book → what makes a gift from grandparents last.
What does a personalized storybook add to the eight nights?#
Who each of the eight suits, in one line:
- Under two → Where Is Baby's Dreidel?
- Counting everything → Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah.
- Three to six, and you want to laugh → Hanukkah Bear, then Latkes and Applesauce.
- A new home or family far away → The Ninth Night of Hanukkah or Hanukkah Upside Down.
- Five and asking why → The Story of Hanukkah, and Hershel for the brave.
Every one of them is about somebody else's window. Bubba Brayna's, Josh Shapiro's, a family in a new apartment. What none of them can show is the window your child actually stands at, the menorah that came from their grandmother, and their own face lit by it.
That is what a personalized storybook does. Our shop has a finished one for Hanukkah: One More Light, Your Child!, a counting book for ages 3 to 6. Each night a grandmother sets her old brass menorah in the window and lights one more candle, right to left, newest first. Then come the dreidel, the latkes, a shadow show of the little jar of oil and the tzedakah box. On the seventh night the lamps go out in a snowstorm, and only the windows on the street keep shining.
The sample below stars Eli, who is five. It opens: "First night of Hanukkah! Bubbe sets her old menorah in the window. One candle and the helper candle, the shamash. 'Just ONE?' asks Eli. Bubbe winks. 'One more light, one more night!'" For your copy you add your child's photo and name, and every page is painted with your child, beside a grandmother and a little sister the book paints for you.
A book from our shop · ages 3–6
One More Light, Your Child!
Eight nights, one more candle every night in Bubbe's old brass menorah in the window. “Just ONE?” Right to left, newest first — then the dreidel, crispy latkes, a shadow show of the little jar of oil, the tzedakah box, jelly doughnuts in a blizzard… and the night the lamps go out and only the windows shine. A cozy, glowing Hanukkah counting book: one more light, one more night!
Shown here starring Eli, 5. Yours is painted with your own child’s face and name on every page, from $39 — and you see the pages before you pay.
The photo they uploaded
The character we drew
Written from this story — not a stock track with a name dropped in. Free with every book.
How the story begins
- 1First night of Hanukkah! Bubbe sets her old menorah in the window. One candle and the helper candle, the shamash. “Just ONE?” asks Eli. Bubbe winks. “One more light, one more night!”
- 2Night two. Eli puts the candles in: right to left. Bubbe lights the shamash. Everyone sings the blessings. Then the shamash lights the newest candle first! Eli counts, “ONE... TWO!”
- 3Night three. Dreidel time! Eli spins... wobble, wobble... NUN. “Nothing!” Naomi spins. GIMEL! She scoops up ALL the gelt. Eli laughs. “One more light, one more night!”
The rest of the story is in One More Light, Your Child!.
The words to the song
[Verse 1] Bubbe brings the menorah out, We set it where the window glows, Right to left the candles go, The newest first — that's how it goes! [Chorus] One more light, one more night, Little flames so warm and bright! Spin the dreidel, count with me, Eight little nights for family! [Verse 2] The snow came down, the lamps went out, But still our little window shone, Like the tiny jar that lasted long, Our light goes on, and on, and on. (Just for looking, just for looking...) [Chorus] One more light, one more night, Little flames so warm and bright! Spin the dreidel, count with me, Eight little nights for family! [Outro] From Bubbe's hands to mine it goes, Someday I'll pass it on, you'll see... One more light, one more night, And one more year, for you and me!
How do you get it with your child in it?
1. Open the book. Go to One More Light and press "Personalize this book".
2. Add your child. Their first name, their age, one clear photo of their face, and the consent tick box. The photo is used only to paint the character and is deleted straight after.
3. See the painted cover before you pay anything. If it does not look like your child, nothing has been spent.
4. Choose digital, softcover or hardcover. Both prices are on one page. Every book comes with its own song, and the hardcover adds the story read aloud. Afterwards it all lives in your dashboard: the page-flip reader, the audio studio, and a reorder button for when the grandparents want a copy.
Hanukkah begins on the 25th of Kislev, so its December date moves every year. Order a printed book well before the first candle; you see a delivery estimate for your address before you pay. Then read the eight on this list, one a night, and keep the one with your child's face for the last.
Book covers are shown unaltered for identification, sourced from Open Library. Each cover remains the property of its publisher and illustrator. KindFable is not affiliated with any of the books recommended here.
