Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

Barbara Cohen‘s The Christmas Revolution was written for fourth graders and its heroes and anti-heroes are of the same age. In the center of the story are twin sisters, from a liberal Jewish family, who react differently to their newcomer classmate, an orthodox Jewish boy’s refusal in class to participate in the communal Christmas festivities. One of the girls, join his (literally) silent revolution, while the other cannot refuse the honor of signing solo in the Christmas production, despite that the words she has to sing are full of references to Christianity.

This is the essence of the revolution from the title, but there is much more going on. Through the various interactions on how toppled the school’s Christmas tree the book teaches not to accuse others without certain knowledge and proof, through the family production of the Hanukkah story it shows how to be inclusive in our celebrations, and how kids belonging to different traditions or different strains of the same tradition can be happy together.

I realize that my little description makes the book sound more educational than it really is. It is, but it is also a fun little detective story with precise descriptions of the lives of 10 year olds.