What Gives Laurel Snyder Hope

More hope. From the kidlit community, to you.  

No matter where you are. No matter what’s going on around you. No matter what is pulling your attention or competing for space in your mind. May these next few minutes offer you rest, peace, and hope.

Hope - February 7, 2026

Laurel Snyder, author of The Book of Candles: Eight Poems for Hanukkah (Clarion Books), illustrated by Leanne Hatch, shares what is giving her hope today:  watching neighbors come together and support each other in the city of Minneapolis.

Listen along:

About the Book:  The Book of Candles: Eight Poems for Hanukkah by Laurel Snyder; illustrated by Leanne Hatch. Published by Clarion Books.

A Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor Winner!From Sydney Taylor Award winner and National Jewish Book Award honoree Laurel Snyder comes a warm, reverential, surprising, and fresh story of one very special Hanukkah.

In a dark, dark room,

one thin candle wakes,

bursts to life

Thus begins the first night of Hanukkah in one child’s home. But what does the light from the candle mean? What are the words everyone is singing? What will each of these eight nights hold? Family and friends, takeout dinners and flat tires, traditions new and old—it’s all part of this year’s timeless, timely holiday celebration.

Transcript:

Laurel: "What is giving me hope right now is the city of Minneapolis. It has been amazing to watch neighbors come together and support each other, people helping each other's families and organizations stepping up and doing their jobs. And it makes me feel hopeful for my own community. I really hope that the rest of us can take Minneapolis as a standard and do the same kind of work.

And the message that I'd like to give to people related to my book is simply that sometimes the most inspiring things are the smallest, and that we have to look to the details and these tiny moments in our daily lives sometimes for hope."