{"id":38550,"date":"2022-03-25T01:36:26","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T08:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=38550"},"modified":"2022-03-24T19:09:33","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T02:09:33","slug":"the-excitement-of-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2022\/03\/25\/the-excitement-of-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"The excitement of holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"

As meaningful and fun as most of the Jewish holidays are, there\u2019s a lot of running around, cleaning, cooking and other preparation that generally goes into them. Three recently published children\u2019s books \u2013 two about Passover and one on Shabbat \u2013 capture the joys of the holidays, and the craziness that can sometimes precede them.<\/p>\n

Passover, Here I Come!<\/em><\/strong>, written by D.J. Steinberg and illustrated by Emanuel Wiemans was put out this year by Grosset & Dunlap. It\u2019s a compilation of short poems, all related to Passover, from \u201cScrub-A-Dub-Dub!\u201d preparations to \u201cBye-bye, Bread!\u201d and \u201cHello, Matzoh!\u201d it goes through pretty much every aspect, including the Passover story, what\u2019s for dinner and the search for the afikomen.<\/p>\n

\u201cMade by Me!\u201d is about making up the seder plate, and all the plate\u2019s items and their symbols are noted alongside the illustration. For the poem \u201cOur Magic Table,\u201d the drawings and words again combine to wonderful effect. We see the tables from set-up to guest-filled, and the typesetting, leaving gaps between the letters forming the words \u201cg r o w s\u00a0\u00a0 a n d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 g\u00a0 r\u00a0 o\u00a0 w\u00a0 s,\u201d communicate the truly magic\u00a0nature of a Pesach table that does seem to fit an enormous number of people, when we\u2019re lucky to have many friends and family join in our celebrations.<\/p>\n

Steinberg\u2019s verse and Wiemans\u2019 drawings work well together, simultaneously entertaining and teaching. The basics of Passover are all covered in Passover, Here I Come! <\/em>which even includes a recipe for Mom\u2019s Matzoh Brei after the four-line poem \u201cWorld\u2019s Best Breakfast.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Persian Passover <\/em><\/strong>(Kalaniot Books) by Etan Basseri with illustrations by Rashin Kheiriyeh, also contains a recipe \u2013 for hallaq<\/em>, which is Persian-style charoset. In addition, the end of the book features a brief description of Passover and what goes on the seder plate, a glossary of Persian and Hebrew words used in the story, and a couple of paragraphs on Jews in Persia, known today as Iran, though, notes Basseri, \u201cthe culture and main language of this region is still called \u2018Persian.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a><\/p>\n

Set in Iran in the 1950s, A Persian Passover<\/em> follows siblings Ezra and Roza, who are helping their family get ready for the holiday. Everyone is put to work and Roza is finally old to enough to accompany older brother Ezra to the synagogue, where families bring their own flour \u201cto be mixed, rolled and baked into soft, delicious matzah.\u201d Though older, Ezra is not necessarily wiser and he\u2019s still a kid, with energy to burn. Not having learned from an earlier collision with a neighbour \u2013 as he ran a lap around the house, being timed by Roza \u2013 Ezra once again asks Roza to measure how fast he can run to the next street corner, freshly baked matzah in hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he didn\u2019t see the rut in the road up ahead. \u2018Oof!\u2019 yelped Ezra as he tripped and fell. Splat! went the bag of matzah as it dropped into a puddle.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018The matzah!\u2019 they exclaimed together.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018That was all the matzah we had for the week. Now it\u2019s gone. What will we tell Mama and Baba?\u2019 asked Roza.\u201d (The glossary notes that baba means dad in Persian.)<\/p>\n

Ezra and Roza set out to find replacement matzah before the seder starts, and we meet more of the neighbourhood folk. Hopefully, it won\u2019t be too much of a spoiler to know that the kids succeed \u2013 not only receiving kindness, but also showing kindness to others along the way.<\/p>\n

The last book that recently came out has to do with matzah, but not with Passover, which is why it\u2019s included in this brief roundup even though it\u2019s about Shabbat. Good for year-round reading, Bubbe and Bart\u2019s Matzoh Ball Mayhem<\/em><\/strong>, written by Bonnie Grubman and illustrated by Deborah Melmon, was published by Seattle\u2019s Intergalactic Afikoman last November. Created by two dog lovers, it begins, \u201cThis is Bubbe\u2019s story. Believe me that it\u2019s true. Her puppy loved each Friday night like Jewish puppies do.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Bubbe made her matzoh balls, Bart was at her feet, waiting for a ball to fall, and not some doggie treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Bart\u2019s begging doesn\u2019t achieve the desired result, he does get to eat all the matzah balls he\u2019s able to catch. Bubbling away in the pot on the stove, the matzah balls grow so large that they blow off the lid and zoom all over the room. Not to be held back by \u201ca better lid, and some very sticky tape,\u201d the balls continue to fly. And we get to count them as they do. (Another spoiler alert: Bart gets to eat an awful lot of matzah.)<\/p>\n

Eventually, with a little magic, calmness is restored and dog and house are cleaned up in time for Shabbat dinner with the family.<\/p>\n

Bubbe and Bart\u2019s Matzoh Ball Mayhem<\/em> ends with a couple of paragraphs about Shabbat, \u201ca very special day of the week,\u201d and a short glossary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As meaningful and fun as most of the Jewish holidays are, there\u2019s a lot of running around, cleaning, cooking and other preparation that generally goes into them. Three recently published children\u2019s books \u2013 two about Passover and one on Shabbat \u2013 capture the joys of the holidays, and the craziness that can sometimes precede them. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784,781],"tags":[21374,4946,20979,21375,3076,21371,21372,2462,218,5741,400,21370,21373,5700],"class_list":["post-38550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-holidays","tag-bonnie-grubman","tag-childrens-books","tag-d-j-steinberg","tag-deborah-melmon","tag-education","tag-emanuel-wiemans","tag-etan-basseri","tag-iran","tag-judaism","tag-matzah","tag-passover","tag-persia","tag-rashin-kheiriyeh","tag-shabbat"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}