It’s almost Passover, and that means Passover books are likely making their way into your story time rotation. The holiday of Passover happens to be a popular subject for Jewish picture books, and for good reason. From Moses to matzah ball soup and from frogs to freedom, there are plenty of topics to cover.
PJ Library has lots of Passover books heading to mailboxes everywhere — some repeat favorites and some going out for the first time. Enjoy a look at some of the recent picks from our Book Selection Committee. Will one of these become your new yearly favorite?
Recommended for ages 2 to 3
It’s just like seder at your house — you know, if you were a family of alligators. Kids will love the rhymes and the high-energy illustrations of the alligator family, and parents will laugh right along at all of the funny references to the fact that this is no ordinary family. “Mommy sets the table. Gefilte fish is made. Her cooking is the best in the entire Everglade.”
Recommended for ages 3 to 4
Tracy Newman’s rhyming introduction to the parts of a seder is a fun, easy read for children who like to know what’s going on when. Adriana Santos’s fun cartoon-style illustrations include some clever hidden gems that families can have fun discovering together.
Recommended for ages 4 to 5
Inside the house, a family enjoys seder dinner together, while outside a stray kitten finds its way around in the dark, looking for food and company. Lesléa Newman beautifully intertwines these two stories – the family’s Passover dinner inside and the kitten just outside the door – until the time has come in the seder to open the door for the prophet Elijah, and everyone is in for a delightful surprise.
Recommended for ages 5 to 6
Customarily it’s the youngest children who recite the Four Questions at the Passover seder, and older siblings and cousins are either relieved or reluctant to hand over that responsibility. In this case it’s the latter, and the shift in roles causes some sibling rivalry between older brother Eitan and younger sister Evie. Naomi Ben-Gur brings real life to the characters — the children are given distinctive personalities, interests, and even some familiar big emotions.
Recommended for ages 6 to 7
Inspired by a story in the Talmud, The Passover Mouse takes place just before the start of Passover, when all the households in a village are trying to clear their homes of chametz (leavened bread), which is prohibited during the holiday. Chaos ensues when a mouse is seen stealing a crumb of bread and tearing through the town. No one can figure out how many mice there are and which houses they’ve run into! Thankfully, the community comes together in the end to work together.
Recommended for ages 7 to 8
Jane Yolen’s take on how baby Moses arrived in Egypt will undoubtedly become a family favorite. This first-person account is written from the point of view of Miriam, Moses’s sister, as she bravely disobeys Pharaoh’s decree and places baby Moses in a basket on the Nile River in an effort to save his life. Khoa Le’s stunning two-page spread illustrations perfectly complement this engrossing tale.
March 19, 2020