Lost and Found Hanukkah

“I love Hanukkah. I love how it’s always the same,” says Nate, Preble’s young narrator, who recalls past celebrations with fathers Daddy and Abba. But after moving to a new neighborhood, nothing feels familiar—even Nate’s favorite menorah has gone missing. “How can Hanukkah be Hanukkah with everything so different?” The family’s search for a new menorah leads to an unexpected friendship with a shop owner, a mission to find missing shop cat Kugel, and a new handmade hanukkiah created by Nate—all embodying the core Hanukkah idea of rededication, which Daddy aptly explains as “beginning something again.” Anchin’s slice-of-life watercolor and pencil illustrations capture the narrator’s emotional journey with reassuring warmth, underscoring the transition from mourning familiar comforts to learning that loved ones and cherished traditions can anchor new memories. Nate and Daddy are portrayed with pale skin; Abba has brown skin. Ages 5–8. (Sept.)