Customer Reviews

Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah (Sammy Spider's First Books)

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2 star:		(1)
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Sammy's First Hanukkah not only introduces preschoolers to Hanukkah in a way that is right on their level, it also reviews numbers and colors as well. A perfect book for the holidays.

This book is an ideal choice for very young children, as it portrays a fun and interesting view of Hanukkah that is very much in keeping with a small child's own perceptions of the holiday, namely, candle lighting, dreidel playing and latke eating. The story is simply told and the illustrations are colorful and reminiscent of Eric Carle's work. It is a quick reading book that my two and half year old enjoyed a great deal.

Reviewed by Leslie Granier and Nicholas Lopez (age 5) for Reader Views (10/07)


Sammy Spider and his mother live on the ceiling of the Shapiro family's house. On the first night of Hanukkah, the Shapiros light one candle in the menorah and their son Josh is given a dreidel to spin. Sammy likes to warm his cold feet by the candles. He also enjoys watching the dreidel spin and asks his mother for one of his own. His mother tells him that spiders spin webs, not dreidels. Each consecutive night an additional candle is lit and Josh is given a different colored dreidel. Sammy keeps asking his mother for a dreidel but gets the same response. At the end of Hanukkah, Sammy is sad because he still has no dreidel of his own. His mother presents him with a clever gift - eight different colored socks (the same colors as the dreidels Josh received) each with a little dreidel spun on the end.

Nicholas had no trouble recognizing the colors (except rose because it appeared to be the same color as brown) and liked seeing the names of the colors so he could learn how to spell them. He thought it was funny that Sammy could wear eight socks that were all different colors and was happy his feet would not be cold anymore. He was also happy that Sammy finally got the dreidel that he wanted. He was not thrilled with the illustrations of the Shapiro family's faces. (They were a little abstract).

"Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah" is a good source for teaching young children about colors and numbers and at the same time explaining certain Jewish traditions.

Book received free of charge

I am Jewish but bought this book as a kindergarten teacher at a non-religious private school.

Though this book does not delve into the the deeper meaning of Hanukkah, it is a great topical book for 2-5 year olds who aren't quite ready to understand the deeper meaning of the holiday, or who are at an establishment that avoids religious depth in lessons. This is not a critique at all; the book relays wonderful traditions in an educational and entertaining way that will stick with children more so than the in-depth story of Hanukkah's more religious and tragic history. It is a wonderful introduction to the holiday's concepts, while providing the added bonus of lessons in colors and numbers.

Wow was I pleased to get both of my Chanukkah books on the first day of our celebration!! Thanks so much and blessings to the Levine family for rushing my books out so quickly!!

This is absolutely the most wonderful book for introducing children to the holiday. I have read it to and with first and second-grade children for years as a teacher. The children are so enchanted and just LOVE chiming in after they "get" the pattern. They "incidentally" learn their ordinal numbers (first, second, third) as part of the fun. They just love Sammy and his mother and totally relate to his wishes for a dreidl! Then they are soooo happy that he gets his wish. A really heart-warming and beautifully illustrated story.

I bought this book at Strawberry Banke in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. They have recreated a colonial village with actual homes that existed long ago. The Shapiro house is there! The Shapiro's were among the first Jewish settlers in America. When you visit Strawberry Banke, there are actors/guides in the homes, so we got to tour the home and speak with "Mrs. Shapiro" as she cooked her family's dinner. Though we searched and searched for Sammy, my daughter and I decided that he must have been hiding that day.

This is not my favorite Chanukah or Sammy Spider book. I really don't like the illustrations (and my two year old doesn't seem to like it very much either - they aren't clear and sometimes difficult to figure out what she is looking at). The story is ok, but it doesn't really do a good job of explaining what Chanukah is about beyond dreidels. With the huge assortment of Chanukah books available (even for the 5 and under crowd), I would skip this one.