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As the nights grow longer and the sun sets earlier, one of our favorite parts of the season is seeing lights go up on house after house, blanketing the city in bright colors. Many different cultures and religions have holidays that include light as an important aspect of the celebration and a way to push back against long and dreary winter nights.
Here at KEEP, we tend to mostly focus on topics like the efficiency of different types of light bulbs, what the appropriate level of lighting in a room is, or how flipping on a switch leads to lights turning on, but sometimes it’s nice to take a step back and remember why we love light in the first place.
So here is a list of 10 picture books looking at different holidays and the ways light can be part of the celebration:
- Winter Light by Aaron Becker | Candlewick Studio, 2024
Die cuts in the pages of this board book are filled with translucent film, sharing winter’s many shades of light and color.
- The House Without Lights by Reem Faruq, illustrated by Nadia Alam | Henry Holt and Company, 2024
A house is disappointed when the new family that moves in doesn’t decorate for Diwali, Hanukkah, or Christmas like the rest of the houses in its neighborhood, only to finally get its turn to shine at Eid.
- Winter Solstice Wish by Kate Allen Fox, illustrated by Elisa Paganell | Beaming Books, 2024
On the shortest day of the year, communities come together to celebrate and savor every ray of light.
- The Light Within You by Namita Moolani Mehra, illustrated by Kamala Nair | Two Lions, 2023
As Diya returns to India to celebrate Diwali with her grandmother, she enjoys participating in all the different traditions, but struggles knowing she’ll soon have to return to her new home in the United States.
- Season of Light by Jess Redman, illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki | Farrar Straus Giroux, 2022
Poetic text describes Christmas as a season of joy, wonder, song, faith, and light, as the illustrations follow three different families through their Christmas traditions.
- Hanukkah Upside Down by Elissa Brent Weissman, illustrated by Omer Hoffmann | Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2023
Cousins in New York and Aotearoa New Zealand enjoy both the similarities and differences as they celebrate Hanukkah on opposite sides of the world.
- Red and Green and Blue and White by Lee Wind, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky | Levine Querido, 2021
In a predominantly Christian town, the sole Jewish house has a rock thrown through the front window where their menorah is displayed. When they decide to leave it up, the rest of town draws menorahs to put up in their own windows in solidarity. Inspired by true events in Billings, Montana in December 1993.
- We Celebrate the Light by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple, illustrated by Jieting Chen | Rise, 2024
This poetic text briefly describes seven different winter holidays relating to light (Diwali, Solstice, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Bodhi Day, and Lunar New Year). Diverse illustrations show some of the many traditions associated with each holiday.
- Amy Wu and the Lantern Festival by Kat Zhang, illustrated by Charlene Chua |Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024
When Amy accidentally breaks her family's lantern for the Lantern Festival at the end of Chinese New Year celebrations, she learns to mend the old with the new to create a new tradition. Includes instructions on how to make homemade lanterns.
- The People Remember by Ibi Aanu Zoboi, illustrated by Loveis Wise | Balzer + Bray, 2021.
Recounts the history of African descendants in America in verse, from the time of the transatlantic slave trade until the present day, connecting their history to the seven principles of Kwanzaa.
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