  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 04/01/2019 PreS-K-This rhyming tale's spare text cursorily describes a seder, but is likely to leave anyone not already knowledgeable about the holiday in the dark. The story is a poeticized list of the events that comprise a Passover seder, each stanza followed on the facing page with the refrain "At our table for this seder night." The trite text is so brief as to be unenlightening, and the meter, rhyme, and rhythm falter at times. The illustrations, while cartoony and slightly slick looking, have a lot going for them. The seder participants are multicultural, including two dark-skinned, curly haired children and their dark-skinned mom and light skinned dad, along with their hosts, a multigenerational white family. Each step of the seder service is cleverly represented in the pictures, and those in the know will delight in finding all of the details included. There is an extensive page of back matter that explains the seder in detail and includes a glossary of the specific terms embedded in the text. But the back matter, while useful, is not enough to make up for the fact that the text, clearly intended for the youngest listeners, will not be accessible to the uninitiated without a lot of extra explaining. VERDICT Jewish schools and libraries in search of a book about the seder experience to enhance existing learning may want to consider this as an additional purchase, but most others can pass over this weak offering.-Amy Lilien-Harper, Wilton Library, CT - Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
 |