Holidays: 8 Picture Books to Celebrate Passover
Today is the third day of the Jewish Holiday, Passover. Here are eight books – one for each night – that discuss different aspects of the holiday, from fitting everyone around the table (Only Nine Chairs) to hosting a Seder during the Holocaust (The Secret Seder).
Want the whole list? Download a PDF, or just grab the titles. Come back tomorrow for my Easter picture book picks!
*Book may be hard to find
1. THE FOUR QUESTIONS, Ori Sherman and Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Why is this book different from all other books? It is an elegant, accessible retelling of the Four Questions asked at a Passover Seder. Sherman’s glorious jewel-toned paintings are patterned and richly detailed, with a curious menagerie of animals, wearing yarmulkes and some clothing, acting out the symbols of the holiday. Each of the Four Questions is asked in English; turn the book upside down, and the question appears in Hebrew calligraphy. The facing picture is split, with images facing each direction as well. This technique enables the book to be used during the Seder: those on each side of the table can see what is going on. The story itself is exciting and timely, telling of the slavery of the Jews, the ten plagues, the exodus from Egypt, and the hope for freedom throughout the world. The book explains the history and the symbolism of the holiday and the items on a Seder plate. The final spread shows the order of the Seder. The pictures are exquisite, the telling lyrical. This is the most eye-catching, most refreshing book available for young children on this holiday. Older children can get more information from Miriam Chaikin’s Ask Another Question: the Story and Meaning of Passover (Clarion, 1986), but The Four Questions will find a wider appreciative audience. –David Gale, for School Library Journal, ages 3 & up
2. THE MATZAH MAN: A PASSOVER STORY, Naomi Howland
Howland (Latkes, Latkes, Good Enough to Eat) makes the story of the Gingerbread Man kosher for Passover in a picture book that improves with repeat readings. Set in an indeterminately old-fashioned community where ladies wear white gloves, hats and fox stoles to go shopping, the story opens as the baker has made a little man out of leftover matzoh dough. Here it is Cousin Tillie, sampling her tender brisket; Auntie Bertha, the shopper; Grandpa Solly, chopping onions for gefilte fish; Miss Axelrod, adding the last matzoh ball to a pot of chicken soup; and a variety of animals who chase after the impish Matzah Man. The storytelling seems attenuated the first time around but all those matzoh-chasers play a role in the satisfying surprise finale. Children will want to return to the beginning to see how neatly Howland sets up her premise. Collage elements (these create the Matzah Man) mingle unobtrusively with almost drab gouaches in the illustrations, which, despite their unprepossessing first impression, are crammed with lively details.–Publisher’s Weekly, ages 4 & up
3. ONLY NINE CHAIRS: A TALL TALE FOR PASSOVER, Deborah Uchill Miller, illustrated by Karen Ostrove
The whole family is coming for Passover in Only Nine Chairs. Deborah Uchill Miller’s rollicking rhyming story mixes tradition with fun, taking young readers through a Passover meal that lacks seats for ten people. Should some sit on the stairs? In the attic? Karen Ostrove’s expressive cartoons add to the humor of this hilarious text as parsley is dipped with fishing rods and a matzah mountain formed. Kids will love searching the pictures to discover how each family member is trying to solve the problem. The family finally finds a believable and utterly satisfying solution to their problem—until one final guest arrives.–Mary Quattlebaum, for Barnes & Noble, ages 3 & up
4. SAMMY SPIDER’S FIRST PASSOVER, Sylvia A. Rouss, illustrated by Katherine Janus Kahn
In this seasonal follow-up to Sammy Spider’s First Hanukkah, the eager arachnid’s mother teaches him to make a web when theirs is laid waste by a “monster”–a broom being used to ready the Shapiros’ home for Passover. Though Sammy becomes fascinated by his mother’s explanations of the holiday traditions, he is repeatedly told, “Spiders don’t celebrate Passover. Spiders spin webs.” Following instructions, Sammy completes a new web and participates in the Shapiro family observance after all. Using cut-paper artwork made festive with cheery patterns, Kahn depicts a contemporary human family (complete with kitty), and a mother-son spider duo reminiscent of Eric Carle’s creations.–Publisher’s Weekly, ages 3 & up
5. DINOSAUR ON PASSOVER, Diane Levin Rauchweger
The friendly, oversize creature from Dinosaur on Hanukkah returns to celebrate Passover with a boy and his family. In silly, rhyming text, the reptile tries to help perform the holiday rituals: removing the forbidden foods, preparing the horseradish, singing the four questions, drinking the wine, retelling the story of the Exodus, eating matzah, searching for the afikomen, and welcoming the prophet Elijah. While his size, enthusiasm, and clumsiness wreak havoc on the family Seder, by the end of the story he is curled up in a heap fast asleep. The illustrations are bright and sophisticated, complementing the cheery mood of the text. A brief endnote explains Passover, but the book will be best enjoyed by children already familiar with the holiday.–Rachel Kamin, Temple Israel Libraries & Media Center, West Bloomfield, MI for School Library Journal, ages 3 & up
6. ON PASSOVER, Cathy Goldberg *
As a young girl prepares for Passover with her family, she uses all her senses to experience this important Jewish holiday. Everyone in her family answers her questions (which are an integral part of Passover) and playfully encourages her to understand more deeply what they are celebrating. Her father tells her that it is important for Jewish people to celebrate Passover every year so that they can always remember what it was like when people were slaves in Egypt, and so they can pray for all the people in the world who don’t have freedom. The girl learns that Passover has things to see (feathers, candles, and spoons), smell (gefilte fish and chicken soup), taste (matzah bread), hear (songs and blessings), and feel (the softness of the silk matzah cover). Passover is a time to ask questions. But most of all, she says, Passover is “a wonderful feeling in my heart, dyenu.” (Hebrew for “it would be enough.”)
Cathy Goldberg Fishman’s gentle, lilting child’s-eye-view of Passover is a quiet extravaganza of the senses. Melanie W. Hall’s wonderfully Chagall-like collagraph and mixed-media illustrations create a mystical backdrop that evokes history and tradition as it commemorates ancient symbolic ritual. This is one of four in a series by the author/illustrator team, including On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, On Hanukkah, and On Purim.–Emilie Coulter for Amazon.com, ages 5 & up
7. THE SECRET SEDER, Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully
Amid the plethora of Holocaust children’s literature emerges yet another picture book that uses the themes of exodus and freedom associated with Passover to contrast the reality of Nazi-occupied Europe. The narrator is a French boy whose family lives openly as Catholics, but secretly observes their Jewish faith. Despite the fear that their true identity will be discovered, he and his father attend an all-male Seder held in an abandoned shack in a nearby forest. They arrive with a roasted egg for the meager Seder plate, which lacks many of the traditional ingredients. One man says, “We have no bitter herbs to dip in salted water,” while another replies, “We do not need bitter herbs….Our lives are bitter enough.” The highlight of the evening is when the boy recites the four traditional questions, which he had secretly practiced with his mother. The men provide secondary answers to the customary ones: “I think tonight is different because tonight all over Europe, Jews are being murdered.” Their sadness, fear, and misery are underscored by the idea that tonight they are free in their hearts and by their hope for a brighter future. Watercolors depicting gloomy, foreboding images of the village, forest, and shack counter the child’s memories of happier meals at his grandmother’s home. Rappaport interweaves themes and descriptive text to create a meaningful story in a distinctive setting. An excellent discussion starter. –Rita Soltan, Oakland University, Rochester, MI for School Library Journal, ages 8 & up
8. THE MATZAH THAT PAPA BROUGHT HOME, Fran Manushkin, illustrated by Ned Bittinger
A charming rephrasing of the traditional cumulative song “Had Gadya” that captures all the excitement, magic, inspiration, high jinks, and eventual exhaustion of a family celebrating a Passover Seder. Here, instead of a goat, the poem revolves around the matzah that Papa brings home, which inspires the feast that Mama makes, the seder they all share, etc. While the text is well done and great fun, the illustrations, rendered in oils, are stellar. Each masterful painting has a subtext. The family members are constantly moving or gesturing while some are intent on praying or singing, a girl is shushing the dog, and a boy is intent on stealing the matzah. During the recapitulation of the plagues, the artist depicts real frogs and locusts jumping out of the wine glasses. The search for the hidden afikomen is positively frenetic, and the picture of the youngest child standing tall and proud (and still) to ask the Four Questions has great impact. Three pages at the end tell the story of Passover. A unique, lively offering.–Marcia Posner, Federation of New York and the Jewish Book Council, New York City, ages 4 & up
