Dance, Sing, Remember: A Celebration of Jewish Holidays by Leslie Kimmelman, Ora Eitan (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

Do you know what holiday to sound the shofar for? Or when to build a sukkah?

Now you can learn, in this celebration of eleven Jewish holidays, from Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, to Shavuot, the accepting of the Torah. There's even a section on Shabbat, the Sabbath. The meaning and story behind each holiday are explained. There are also activities, music, and recipes for adults and children to work on together.

Leslie Kimmelman has created a timeless Jewish treasury, and Ora Eitan's rich, stylized art perfectly captures the mood of each celebration.

Open the pages and discover that a whole year of Jewish holidays is beginning!

Children's Literature

Eleven major holidays are clearly explained for the young on one to two pages each. Appropriate stories, recipes, games, activities and even a song follow some of the holidays' descriptions. Together, they offer a lively, engaging introduction to the important days of the Jewish calendar, and provide information and a handy family reference. The colors of the pages vary from the joyful blue of Simchat Torah to the mournful dark gray of Yom Hashoah. Eitan's small, very simplified vignettes add details, like the small sukkah built for Sukkot, or Moses floating in his basket for the Passover story. Her pictures are simple areas of color while the end-papers dance with colored cutouts representing the holidays. 2000, HarperCollins Publishers,

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1-Visually delightful, thorough, and charming, this book is wonderfully written, simple yet informative, inviting children to learn about their heritage without overwhelming them. Kimmelman includes not only traditional religious holidays, but also those more recently developed such as Yom Ha-atzma'ut (Israeli Independence Day) and Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), which she handles with quiet sensitivity. Accompanying the explanation of each holiday is a supplemental activity or story that enhances the enjoyment and understanding of the day. However, what makes this book such a treasure are the richly toned, stylized illustrations, boxed in white and set against appropriately themed pastel wallpaper backgrounds. From the rabbi blowing the shofar on Yom Kippur to the little boy proudly reciting the Four Questions for Passover, each holiday is represented with clarity, playfulness, and warmth. A splendid choice for all collections.-Teri Markson, Stephen S. Wise Temple Elementary School, Los Angeles Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

New

Here is a brightly illustrated, very straightforward introduction to a dozen Jewish holidays, with stories, songs and activities for some of them. The text is appropriate for young children.

Kirkus Reviews

Organizing according to the Jewish calendar, Kimmelman describes Jewish religious holidays, Israeli national holidays, and the observance of the Sabbath. Each holiday identified includes its name in English and Hebrew, a brief description of its meaning, and a recipe, an activity, or a bible story related to it. The brevity of some of the explanations omits some essential information. Rosh Hashanah is the first holiday in the Jewish New Year, but Kimmelman neglects to define the Jewish year. The section on Sukkot mentions, "we shake the lulav" in a description of holiday activities, but there is no clear definition in words or illustration of the lulav. In describing matzah, Kimmelman does not make the connection about why the Israelites could not wait for bread to rise and prepared matzah instead. Illustrations sometimes do not adequately illustrate the text. A person unfamiliar with a sukkah, the hut constructed for eating meals during the holiday of Sukkot, could not tell what it looks like from Eitan's sketchy drawing. An illustration of Moses in a basket has no reference in the text to the Passover holiday. The introduction indicates that some of the holidays are recent in origin but the text makes no clear distinction between religious holidays and historically significant modern commemorations such as Yom Hashoah, the remembrance of the Holocaust and Yom Ha-atzma'ut, Israel's Independence Day. Written primarily for those who are already familiar with the celebrations, this title will not serve the informational needs of the general reader. (Nonfiction. 4-8)Konigsburg, E.L. SILENT TO THE BONE Atheneum (272 pp.) Oct. 2000

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