Dance, Sing, Remember: A Celebration of Jewish Holidays

List Price: 18.99

Our Price: $18.95

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Description: From Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, in early fall, to Shavuot, celebrating the first harvest of the spring and the accepting of the Torah, Dance, Sing, and Remember offers an engaging, colorful introduction to the moods and meanings of a variety of Jewish holidays. Leslie Kimmelman invites readers to honor 11 of these special days by learning what each one is about and how it is observed. Kimmelman's warm, accessible writing provides enough background information for anyone--Jewish or not--who wants to understand why a sukkah (hut) is built in the backyard during Sukkot, or when the shofar (long, twisty horn) is blown, or how to play the dreidel (spinning top) game. Ora Eitan's unusual and appealing illustrations appear framed in white, and superimposed on full spreads of background color and patterns. Perhaps most intriguing of all is the two-page spread for Yom Hashoah, the sad and serious day in which Jewish people remember the Holocaust, the Shoah. Grainy gray turns to a solid black backdrop, with a small silhouette of a bird flying off a corner of the page. Most of the other illustrations are full of light and color, so this contrast is especially striking. Incorporating recipes, activities, music, and stories, this lovely picture book provides a window to the idea that "every holiday is a way of remembering, a way of connecting children to their parents and grandparents and to their parents and grandparents--all the way back to the very first Jews." (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter

Genre: Judaism; Juvenile Nonfiction; Fasts and feasts; Children: Grades 1-2; Religion - Judaism; Children's Books/Ages 4-8 Nonfiction; Children: Preschool; Jewish holidays; Holidays and Celebrations - Other, Religious; Juvenile Nonfiction / Holidays and Festivals / Jewish; Juvenile literature; Social Science - Customs, Traditions, Anthropology; Customs and practices;

Average Review: 4 stars

Review: Before you get too excited : This is not a bad book. However, I was disappointed because I guess I misunderstood what "simple yet thorough" meant. This is very simple; it is for 4-8 year olds and they mean it. I didn't learn a whole lot and that's a lot of money to pay for a simple book. I don't believe this is a complete list of holidays. There is no month listed for the holiday! There was no explanation of the Jewish calendar and of how they calculate years. I'm pretty sure there was not an activity for each holiday, which was a big minus (I borrowed this from the library). (Side note: if your child has food allergies, you would end up with not many activities to do at all.) So instead of billing this as an activity-filled "thorough" book, I would say it would probably be a nice read-aloud to your child. You could probably find the same information online (which is what I plan to do with my children).