Customer Reviews

Sammy Spider's First Tu B'Shevat

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Sammy Spider's lesson this time is on the seasons. He sees how the seasons affect the trees. Then in the end they celebrate Tu B'Shvat.

As usual, the pictures are colorful and add to the flavor of the story. But unlike the usual Sammy Spider fare, this book talks less about the holiday rituals (of which there are very few) and more about the world around Sammy that eventually leads to an appreciation of the holiday.

Missing are the funny ways Sammy gets caught while trying to get in the holiday spirit; but you feel Sammy grow up as the year passes and he learns about trees and what makes them grow and how they survive the seasons.

I don't know how the un-Jewish concept of a spider family became the mechanism for a series of books about Jewish holidays but my kids and their friends love them. This time Sammy learns about the holiday of Tu B'Shevat, the New Year of the trees.

In these books Sammy observes the human family and asks his mother what they are doing. The mother always seems to have the answer even if it doesn't concern spiders (they just spin webs). This time we watch the progression of the seasons and see some of the signs of those seasons. Each season also has a two-page picture showing the house and yard as it appears during each season. These act as a very good way of teaching children how to recognize the differences.

Because this is a book of seasons the story spans slightly more than a full year (encompassing two Tu B'Shevat celebrations). I didn't feel that the book did a good enough job explaining the holiday or its importance to Judaism but it seems to work for my kids (six and under).

This book in the Sammy Spider Jewish holiday series for small children (ages 4-6) is really more about the changes of the seasons than the festival of Tu B'Shevat itself, although the festival is mentioned. But since there really aren't too many other rituals associated with this holiday, the focus on tree-planting is appropriate. Sammy Spider watches his human neighbors, the Shapiros, celebrate with fruit and nuts (eating (a tradition for this holiday) and by planting a sapling (also traditional). The colorful paper-cut illustrations the follow the Tree through the seasons, showing the leaves change color, etc., as the Shapiros care for their yard. As a secular presentation of nature with a Jewsih twist, it's a nice book.