Hershel & the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel. Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. unpgd. Holiday House, January, 1989. 9780823407699.
#tbt features Hershel & the Hanukkah Goblins, written by Eric Kimmel and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. This original story feels like a traditional folktale. Hershel of Ostropol hopes to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah in the next village. When he arrives, he learns that the villagers are haunted by goblins and are not allowed to celebrate Hanukkah. Hershel asks how to break the goblins' spell and learns he must spend eight nights in the old synagogue, light a candle each night and on the eighth night, the King of the Goblins must light the candles himself. It was published in January of 1989 and won a Caldecott Honor.
This book became an instant favorite with my boys and we broke it out to read frequently. When I became a school librarian, my first job was in a K-8 school where I saw all the students once a week as a "special." I read Hershel each year and no student ever minded one bit.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black. Unabridged audiobook on 10 compact discs, 12 hours. Read by Christine Lakin. Hachette Audio, September, 2013. 9781478924692. (Purchased)
Tana awakens in the bathtub the morning after a wild party at which she downed a few too many shots. The house is eerily quiet. This is because it is filled with corpses. Apparently, the party was crashed by marauding vampires and somehow, Tana escaped notice having been passed out in the aforementioned bathtub. She needs to leave. Quickly. As she searches for her stuff, she discovers her ex-boyfriend tied to a bed and a chained vampire near him. Her relationship with Aiden, the ex, is complicated and, while he has been bitten and surely infected, she cannot bring herself to leave him behind. Her relationship with Gavriel, the chained vampire is about to become very complicated since she saves him as well. From what? Apparently, there are an unknown number of vampires waiting for the sun to set to kill Gavriel.
Tana has no choice other than to load them up in her car and head to the nearest Coldtown, a walled off city where humans, possibly infected humans and vampires live quarantined from the rest of the population.
No sparkly, stalkerish vampires here (thank goodness). This is purely predator and prey, violence and blood and gore. That a romance could arise in such an unforgiving atmosphere is testament to Holly Black's storytelling. Through the narration by her kick-ass heroine, Black paints a wholly believable, terrifying world. The performance by Christine Lakin is pitch perfect. She gives Tana that slightly monotonous, tough girl tone, a charming accent to Gavriel, and an appropriately bad-boy whine/cajole to Aiden. Other characters receive individual voices as well. I was so totally swept up by this story that I actually hoped for traffic since I was listening to it in my car. And it was one where I frequently lingered in my driveway to listen longer.
Had I been reading this with my eyes, I might have swallowed it in one big gulp. Reading with my ears, while excruciating because I couldn't hurry up the narration, allowed me to appreciate the worldbuilding, setting and character development in a way I might not have had I barreled on reading with my eyes.
This is a new favorite and one I will recommend to my more mature, thoughtful readers.
