Diana Cohen Conway

Living in sunny California it is easy to forget what real winter is about. In this situation Diana Cohen Conway's Northern Lights: A Hanukkah Story can come to the rescue. In it a Jewish girl is stranded for Hanuakkah in Alaska by the weather and is hosted by an Inuit family. There real cultural exchange happens as she tells them the story of Hanukkah and they share with her bits of their culture, both material and literary. Meanwhile on every page we encounter stunning watercolor paintings show more by Shelly O. Haas, mostly in light blues and yellows, showing not just the two young girls developing friendship, but attempting to capture the atmosphere of northern lights. It is a simple story, for simple times with simple lesson about the value of multicultural sharing and discovering our similarities. show less

This book was terribly written and has no plot. No, I don't just mean in general but even for a kids' book. Nothing really happens (too much time is spent trying to establish why the plane went down and the choice of residence to stay - this could have been accomplished in three lines). Then Sarah says hardly anything about Chanukah. Seriously, I counted: 5 pages as to why they can't go home yet 3 pages about Chanukah... Badly written, and far less descriptive of anything else in the story. show more

Then, to boot, it's not even a good illustration of the Northern Lights - which I don't think was properly connected to the holiday.

This book is so bad, I can't decide if I should keep it or even try to show it to kids. It doesn't offer anything to learn or see about either culture. Epic fail. show less

This book was terribly written and has no plot. No, I don't just mean in general but even for a kids' book. Nothing really happens (too much time is spent trying to establish why the plane went down and the choice of residence to stay - this could have been accomplished in three lines). Then Sarah says hardly anything about Chanukah. Seriously, I counted: 5 pages as to why they can't go home yet 3 pages about Chanukah... Badly written, and far less descriptive of anything else in the story. show more

Then, to boot, it's not even a good illustration of the Northern Lights - which I don't think was properly connected to the holiday.

This book is so bad, I can't decide if I should keep it or even try to show it to kids. It doesn't offer anything to learn or see about either culture. Epic fail. show less

When a storm grounds their plane, a Jewish family celebrates Hanukkah with a Yupik Eskimo family and discovers they share many customs (from summary).