Picture Book - Around the Passover Table by Tracy Newman

Illustrated by Adriana Santos

2019 Albert Whitman & Co.

HC $16.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.67 - 21 ratings

My rating:  4
Endpapers:  Dark baby blue

1^st line/s:  "Here is our table for this seder night."

My comments: Modern-day illustrations, multi-ethnic representations, simplicity and not too much text highlight this book as a great read aloud for preschoolers, just what I was looking for!  I love that the family's cat and dog are in every illustrations, no matter what's going on, just part of the family!

Goodreads:  The candles are lit, the seder plate filled, and the matzo stacked high. Join in to read, sing, eat, and observe the holiday. The many steps of a Passover seder are portrayed in this rhyming story.

A Tale of Two Seders – Minda Avra Portnoy

Illustrated by Valeria Cis

Kar-Ben Publishing, 2010

Hc $17.95

32 pages

Rating:  4 – but non-Jewish kids/parents would have to refer to the glossary a LOT

Endpapers – Black – or such a dark navy blue that it looks black.

Title Page – pale green wall, table covered with swirly green tablecloth, seder plate, candles, Kiddish cups, and plate of matzah.

Illustrations:  no white, edge-of-page to edge-of-page, extremely appealing with strong color.  I very much like them.

Setting:  contemporary America

OSS:  An only child tells about the si different seders she’s attended since her parents divorced three years before.

1^st sentence/s:  “The year after my mom and dad stopped being married to each other, I went to two seders in two places --- one at Dad’s apartment, and one at Mom’s house.”

The author shows, in a clever, lovely way, how the passage of time changes things – but that with a caring, loving family, being close to one another doesn’t have to change at all.  We see new relationships, grandparents, and friends, as well as many of the Passover traditions that would have great meaning to a child – the charoset, the Four Questions, finding the afikomen.

The book ends with four different recipes of charoset:  Yemenite, Israeli, traditional Askenazi, and a traditional Italian recipe with 18 ingredients (a very special Hebrew number) that makes two quarts!