Review: The Remembering Candle
The Remembering Candle
by Alison Goldberg, illustrated by Selina Alko
Barefoot Books, 2025
Category: Picture Books
Reviewer: Jacqueline Jules
With direct, yet childlike language, a young narrator shares how his family observes the first yahrzeit of their beloved grandfather. Together, the family lights the candle at sundown. Little sister Elsie wants to blow it out like a birthday candle until Mom explains that this candle isn’t for wishes. A yahrzeit candle is made to last twenty-four hours, long enough to spend some thoughtful time remembering a loved one. Through touching illustrations and text, the narrator recalls fond memories, such as how his grandfather loved to gaze through a telescope at night. The imagery of stars is woven into the story as the text compares the many memories shared throughout the book to shining lights in the sky. This thought is accompanied by a lovely illustration depicting the family as constellations. The last lines of the book ponder why the yahrzeit candle burns a whole night and day: “So we have time for our memories to reach us, and we can connect them together, and keep them shining bright.”
The Remembering Candle explores mourning and remembrance through a clearly Jewish lens. The endnotes provide further material on Jewish memorial traditions, including the difference between the anniversary date on the Gregorian calendar and the Jewish calendar. Selina Alko’s illustrations, created with collage-style artwork, depict a loving multiracial Jewish family in warm earth tones. This is an important and beautiful book which models how children can be meaningfully included in yahrzeit observance.
The Remembering Candle explores mourning and remembrance through a clearly Jewish lens. The endnotes provide further material on Jewish memorial traditions, including the difference between the anniversary date on the Gregorian calendar and the Jewish calendar. Selina Alko’s illustrations, created with collage-style artwork, depict a loving multiracial Jewish family in warm earth tones. This is an important and beautiful book which models how children can be meaningfully included in yahrzeit observance.
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Reviewer Jacqueline Jules is the award-winning author of fifty books for young readers including The Porridge-Pot Goblin, The Hardest Word, Picnic at Camp Shalom, Drop by Drop: A Story of Rabbi Akiva, Light the Menorah: A Hanukkah Handbook, and Never Say a Mean Word Again. Her middle grade verse novel, My Name is Hamburger, was a PJ Our Way selection. And her picture book, Moses and the Runaway Lamb, was a Junior Library Guild selection. She lives on Long Island and enjoys talking long walks along the water. Visit her online www.jacquelinejules.com
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