Hanukkah Ghosts

Fending off her homesickness by wandering the English moors where she is visiting her great aunt, Susan is delighted when she discovers a barn full of horses, until her aunt tells her that they have not kept horses since the Second World War.

From Booklist

Gr. 3^-5. At the heart of this suspenseful time-slip fantasy set during Hanukkah is a young girl's growing awareness of her Jewish identity. When Susan is sent to England to spend the week with an elderly aunt, she feels as desolate as the gray moors surrounding the stone manor house. But as the Hanukkah candles flicker each night, she mysteriously meets the children who lived there during World War II. One is Hanni, a Jewish refugee; another is Alex, Aunt Elizabeth's prejudiced stepson. Penn strikes a good balance between the ordinary events of daylight and the extraordinary happenings at dusk. Although information about Hanukkah isn't always smoothly integrated into the narrative, it is a minor flaw. This has good style, a likable heroine, and an eerie atmosphere. When Susan is able to correct a terrible injustice that occurred 50 years earlier, she takes part in the miracle of the holiday season. Julie Corsaro

About the Author

Michele Palmer is a freelance writer and editor. The former manager of Tapescribe, the transcribing service of the Center for Oral History at the University of Connecticut. She also writes for children under the name Malka Penn.

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