BOOKS OF HANUKKAH AND CHRISTMAS

Author: By Liz Rosenberg

Date: SUNDAY, December 14, 1997

Page: H2

Section: Books

Some years ago, the slightly spooky and completely charming ``Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins'' won a Caldecott Honor Medal. In it, the simple, brave Hershel of Ostropol manages to fool eight consecutive goblins and rescue Hanukkah. Sly, funny, scary, touching, this new classic appeals to children of all ages and religions, and is still available in both paper and hardcover.

``Chanukah in Chelm'' -- it occurs to me now that no one agrees on how to spell this holiday -- is a new choliday chlassic. It sweetly combines the very old and the very new. Chelm is the traditional make-believe town of fools in Jewish literature. If The Stupids were Jewish, they'd move there in a minute. So Chanukah in Chelm (the ``ch'' is pronounced as if one were clearing one's throat) is bound to be a grand, comic disaster. Mendel, our addle-brained hero, is caretaker of the Chelm synagogue. His task is to find a table on which to set the Chanukah menorah, for, as the rabbi tells him, ``We are commanded to set out lights where others can see them and be reminded of the Chanukah miracles.''

Ignoring the table in front of his eyes, he sets off on a series of adventures and misadventures with his fellow citizens and fools. Adler captures the wise-comic tone of the traditional Jewish tale, while artist O'Malley provides visual jokes on every page -- crates of ``imported air,'' bicycles with square wheels, street signs that point in all directions. Silly enough to appeal to the youngest children, there are enough subtleties here to entertain the older children and adults. This book deserves a place in every permanent collection.

``Cracked Corn and Snow Ice Cream: A Family Almanac'' by Nancy Willard is a gently-illustrated calendar of months and seasons; a sweet hodgepodge of sayings, facts, dates, poems, advice, and assorted holiday traditions; a celebration of Willard's own farm family in Iowa, complete with quotes, family photos, and memorabilia. Some parts of it are bound to be more interesting to the general reader than others. I'm less keen to study the author and artist's old family photos -- I get confused as to which kin belongs to whom -- than to learn how to make a spigot for maple sugaring, how to keep moles out of my garden (assuming I had them), or that ``In China and Japan peachwood is thought to protect children from evil spirits.'' Grown-ups and certain stay-at-home types of older children will likely enjoy this generous and eclectic collection more than younger readers.

Among new-old offerings is Barry Moser's retelling of O. Henry's famous story ``The Gift of the Magi,'' with an old-timey feel, as the author-artist explains in a back note, ``as if drawn and painted on brown wrapping paper.'' The story concerns a newly-married couple, Rebecca and Fenton, who live ``in a trailer over in the Stoney Creek Mobile Home Park on Route 30.'' Fenton is an auto mechanic, while Rebecca works several part-time jobs in addition to teaching Sunday School at the local church. Both are barely scraping by, and, as with the original story, each makes great sacrifices that render the other's gift unusable. Rebecca sells her wedding quilt to buy her husband a new tool box, while he sells his tools to buy his wife a chest for the beloved quilt. The original O. Henry story has a certain bright-hearted optimism -- the original heroine's hair surely would grow back -- while Moser suggests that the quilt may be gone forever, and better times don't necessarily lie straight ahead. His poignant message echoes the book's title, from James 1:17: ``Every good and perfect gift is from above.''

``Rocking Horse Christmas'' has that gorgeous, shimmery oil-painting look we seem to crave at holiday times. Ned Bittinger's paintings of a boy and his favorite rocking horse are purely beautiful, with tender faces and a feeling of light cast subtly from above. Mary Pope tells a story in its way overly familiar -- reminiscent of ``The Velveteen Rabbit'' and countless other old-toy stories -- yet gives it a life of its own, and the toy's eventual rescue by the now-grown boy's son, while expected, is still very moving. I love the early scenes where the boy imagines adventures on the back of his rocking horse -- wild West, knights in armor, etc. This is a particularly happy marriage of author and artist to create one solid work of art.

Where is the Christmas angel that looks ``just like'' the African-American boy-hero of ``An Angel Just Like Me''? (Where are his books, for that matter, on the chain bookstore's ``Holiday Table''?) It's a question we must all ask ourselves, not because it's politically correct but because it is humanly responsible. Tyler is beginning to look closely at Christmas: department-store Santas that he hopes ``might look a little like his own dad'' (one of them does), a creche with only one of the figures (one of the Wise Men, of course) who looks like family. But the angels he sees everywhere -- in stores, on Christmas trees and cards -- are all white. There's a wonderful surprise waiting for Tyler at the end of this story, and an important message gently delivered through this book. Author Mary Hoffman lets the moral speak for itself. The two collaborating artists create dreamy realistic pictures that have a built-in holiday glow: the children's faces literally shine.