Using the repeat­ed refrain “…this light fills my heart with joy”, the author and illus­tra­tor present a lul­la­by along with soft­ly col­ored draw­ings which explain and give a feel­ing of the hol­i­day of Hanukkah to a very young child. Writ­ten in par­tial rhyme, the book is designed to be used in con­junc­tion with the sung lul­la­by; the music can be accessed on iTunes or Face­book and the adult read­er must access the music independently.

Illus­tra­tions include Hanukkah gelt, light­ing the meno­rah, the Mac­cabee fight for free­dom, hol­i­day foods and chil­dren play­ing instru­ments. An excel­lent, com­pre­hen­sive sum­ma­ry of the hol­i­day is includ­ed at the end of the book.

While a nice pic­ture accom­pa­ni­ment for a per­son­al adult and child lul­la­by expe­ri­ence, as a board book itself, the vocab­u­lary is out of sync with usu­al board book age group. Par­ents can, of course, use the pic­tures and sub­sti­tute their own words when ​“read­ing” the book instead of singing the lul­la­by but use of a par­en­t’s own words does not seem to be the author’s intent.

Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 1 – 4.