How I Saved Hanukkah by Amy Goldman Koss Read Free Book Online Page B

Maccabees went home to their village to celebrate and found that their Temple had been destroyed.”
    “Bummer,” said Yaz.
    I told everyone about the rebuilding of the Temple and the miracle of the oil lasting eight nights and that’s why we light candles for eight nights.
    Then I said that before vacation my teacher had made me make a blue-and-white candle when all the rest of the class was making red-and-green ones.
    “None of my other teachers before had ever singled me out as the only Jewish kid in class. But the story of Hanukkah makes me think Mrs. Guyer was sort of right—I shouldn’t have to make red-and-green decorations all the time just because everyone else is. I am me—blue and white.”
    “Bravo!” my dad yelled, and everyone clapped and cheered for me. My mom looked teary.
    “I leave town for a few days,” my dad said, “and my kid turns the whole family into characters in a warm-fuzzy Hanukkah segment.”
    “Are we as heartwarming as the sextuplets in Santa hats?” I asked.
    “You have a promising future in television,” my dad said, winking.
    My mom walked by just then and said, “God forbid!”
    Later almost everyone danced! My mom led the dancers in a chain, snaking through the kitchen and living room with the hora tape at full volume. And we played dreidel with kids calling out the letters so loud that the grown-ups all left the room.
    Sean, the neighbor kid who hadn’t wanted to come in the first place, told me he didn’t want a latke. Then he tried one when everyone else did. “It’s just hash browns!” he said, and had seconds.
    Everyone brought a grab-bag gift for a kid. My mom had told them that the gifts were to be cheap. A token. But some people didn’t listen and I got one of the gifts those people brought. Forty-eight Magic Markers and two huge pads of paper. When no one was looking, I traded it with Lucy for the jigsaw puzzle she’d gotten. Lucy promised to draw me a picture of my Hanukkah party, using all forty-eight colors.
    I was walking Lucy and her family to the door when Yaz turned to me and said, “This was fun. I can’t believe we all fell for your pathetic story about how dreary Hanukkah is!”
    “Well, it wasn’t always like this,” I laughed.
    *    *    *
    When everyone was gone but us, and my mom was done complaining about the mess, and sleeping Ned had been peeled off Dad’s shoulder and put to bed, my parents came into my room.
    “Mom tells me this was all your doing,” my dad said. “The party, the hora, everything . . . . So you’re probably going to do all the dishes and cleaning up yourself too, right?”
    My mom rolled her eyes at him, so he said, “Just kidding.”
    Mom gave me a hug, saying, “You are really something else, Miss Marla. I’m very lucky to have a daughter like you . . . even if you did turn me into my old Auntie Eva.” She hugged me again and she didn’t let go for a long, long time.
    *    *    *
    Hanukkah was over.
    The next morning my mom said, “Now, does anybody want to run out and get some Christmas lights and ornaments for next year? This is the perfect time for sales.”
    “I do!” Ned said. “Can we
really
?”
    “It’s up to Marla,” said Mom.
    I knew it was a test, but I also knew it was myonly chance to have a tree, ornaments, colored lights . . . . I tried to picture our house all decorated like Lucy’s. Our white-on-white living room with cotton clouds on the mantel, red candles, and stockings? Even in my mind it didn’t fit right.
    So it didn’t take me
that
long to say, “Nah, we’re Jewish.”
    My mom gave me the thumbs-up sign, but Ned socked me. He has a lot to learn. Really.

Amy Goldman Koss is also the author of
The Trouble with Zinny Weston, The Ashwater Experiment
, and
The Girls
(all Dial). She was inspired to write
How I Saved Hanukkah
when her daughter was the only kid in her class given Hanukkah colors to work with on an art project. Like Marla’s mother,