Customer Reviews

Colors of Israel (Colors of the World)

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The Colors of Israel is the first book in the Colors of the World series I have read and as a teacher, I am now ready to recommend this book and the series to my students.Although I am quite knowledgable about Israel(I lived there for 12 years),I was quite pleasantly surprised by the type of information Ms.Grossman chose to include. This is not your usual superficial blue and white,Hava Nagilah description of life in Israel. Rather,Ms Grossman offers a realistic tapestry,accessible to children,of everyday life in the always colorful,yet incredibly complex,Holy Land. I was struck by the creativity of the choices of where each color can be found,from the pink of the raspberry drink to the black of the Dead Sea mud to the green of a door leading to an Arab home. A child reading this book surely will understand the uniqueness of Israel and hopefully will be curious enough to want to learn even more. This book gives me hope-it presents Israel as a vibrant,interesting,fun country with a diverse population. Yes, a child reading this learns about the reality(yellow is for the robot that blows up suspicious objects)but the reality also includes the other colors of everyday life and yes, that everyday life includes different types of Jews,Arabs, and Christians.I recommend this book to anyone who wants a child to learn about the wonder of the most special place in the world,Israel.

This book uses a simple but effective framework of colors to introduce elements of life in Israel. The writer acknowledges the role that Israel plays in other religions, but her approach is firmly rooted in a Jewish milieu.

Colors of Israel is a good addition to any child's library, and is particularly suitable for Jewish children.

The tone of this book is set on the first page, with a map showing "Israeli-controlled territory," and a statement that both Islam and Christianity have claims to Israel. The second page follows this theme with a statement that Muslims believe that their prophet rose to heaven from Jerusalem. The next section of text discusses Arab wedding ceremonies and other Arab cultural institutions. Two pages later is a statement about terrorism in Israel, which in its entirety is the following: "Different national groups disagree about who should be living in Israel. Some people, called terrorists, believe that frightening citizens is a way to bring about change. ... Most people want to stop terrorism." No word about who these terrorists are -- are they Israelis? The next page is about B'nai Akiva, whose purpose, we are told, is to "discuss Israeli values," such as bringing more immigrants to Israel "and the settling of land." Full of code words, this book is a bad choice. Much better books are "A Ticket to Israel," by Marcia Gresko, and "Enchantment of the World: Israel," by Martin and Stephen Hintz.

The book description claims this is for ages 4-8. Really??? Yellow is for bomb detonation equipment. I want this for my 4-year-old???? Not "yellow is the glow of Jerusalem's stone buildings when they gleam in the light of the moon." Not "yellow is the throat of the bulbul birds when they arrive for the winter." Yellow is for bomb equipment. This book went back to Amazon.

I loved this book and keep it available to share with young friends.
Grossman masterfully achieves directness and realism without heavy-handedness, with the juxtaposition of yellow bomb equipment and sunny summer drinks, Jewish Israel's blue and Arab Israel's green.
The author's reflection of Israel's reality resonated very much with my own experience there.
A helpful introduction to a diverse culture whose usual media image is only blood and fear.

I must have read a different book than the previous reviewer, who seems to find something anti-Israel under every rock. As one who visits friends and family in Israel each year and closely follows the news, I found this book to be quite good. Further, my kids, who speak Hebrew, like it and it's helped prepare them for an upcoming family visit to Israel. Moslems and Christians and Jews, like myself, believe different things. But we all do share a passion for the sacred Land of Israel. I have strong, strong positive feelings about the Jewish claim. I always look for good ways to explain to kids this very complex situation. I think this book is a good one. I recommend fellow educators look at it for themselves and decide. I'll buy it, and won't be afraid of explaining to my kids that even though some people do mean things to our relatives in Israel, that our job is to defend ourselves while not hating them.