Customer Reviews

Dance, Sing, Remember: A Celebration of Jewish Holidays

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Dance, Sing, Remember: A Celebration of Jewish Holidays" is a book that is both enjoyable and educational. Although it is directed towards children, it is a good resource for all ages. Leslie Kimmelman's well-written text is effectively complemented by Ora Eitan's colorful, impressionistic illustrations.

The text covers the major Jewish observances: Rosh Hashahah, Yom Kippur, Yom Hashoah, etc. The name of each observance is given both in Hebrew characters and in English translation or transliteration. The text gives definitions of such relevant terms as shofar, sukkah, and latkes.

There is a lot of fun supplementary material: a recipe for harvest muffins, instructions on how to play the dreidel game, a retelling of the story of Jonah, and more. Eitan's illustrations are excellent: they range from the solemn to the whimsical. Overall, this is a good book for children of all religious and cultural backgrounds.

I bought this book for my five year old in order to help explain the significance of certain Jewish holidays. He thoroughly enjoyed it and it encouraged lots of great questions. The illustrations are wonderful and I learned a lot too! Highly recommended for any family as a great holiday book and reference book.

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).