Customer Reviews

It's Shofar Time!

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This is the sixth and final addition to the author's excellent Holiday Time series, just in time for Rosh Hashanah! As in the other titles, (It's Challah Time! It's Seder Time! etc.) Tod Cohen's full-color photos capture the joyousness of the children as they learn to celebrate the holiday wearing new clothes, making Jewish New Year's cards for their families, tasting new foods such as pomegranates and star fruits, and blowing the shofar. The sounds of the shofar are explained in easy, understandable terms for this young age level. The children are also shown learning such things as tying their shoes and writing their names. The brief amount of text on each page and very appealing children pictured learning to make round challot and blow the shofar make this just right for using with pre-schoolers, their parents, and in the classroom. Included is an easy shofar craft and a brief paragraph about Rosh Hashanah. Recommended for all Jewish libraries. Ages: 4-6. Reviewed by Andrea Davidson

This installment in the photo essay series by Kropf and Cohen centers on the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. The children blow the shofar, create New Year's cards, bake round challah, dip apples in honey, see the Torah dressed in white, and perform tashlich. The text also refers to the New Year as a time to learn new things, try new things, and set goals for the coming year. Instructions for making a shofar craft project are included along with a brief note about Rosh Hashanah. Like the other editions in this series (It's Challah Time, It's Sukkah Time, It's Hanukkah Time, It's Seder Time, and It's Purim Time), It's Shofar Time will be appreciated by Jewish nursery school teachers and their students.

I like this series very much and have used them with my own kids and with small groups of 2-5-year-olds. Children love seeing "themselves" - real kids doing real crafts, activities and interacting with theit rabbi, teachers and others.

The book nicely reflects today's multi-cultural Jewish community (Reuven and Chloe on the same page - I love that!). It's more varied than my own kids see in our Orthodox shul, but not by much... and as children of converts, it's important for them to know that not every Jew has white skin, brown hair and brown eyes.

Minor quibble with this particular book: the book opens by saying "it's fall." Well, not here, it isn't. Fall's still a week away and Rosh Hashanah started a week AGO, making it still summer. It's great to start a book with the passing of the seasons, but even my 5-year-old wonders why the book says it's fall when it isn't.

I really do like the themes the author has chosen (passage of time, new skills for the kids, new fruit, tashlich, shofar, cards) and her down-to-earth way with words (we pretend the crumbs at tashlich are things we are sorry we have done).

Though Amazon has identified this book as appropriate for ages 4-8, I really feel the best age group is younger. I doubt an 8-year-old would sit still to hear about kids "learning to write their names."

I really liked the paper craft in the back of the book, but it actually is better suited for older kids, because the lacing task isn't really suitable for the skill or attention span of the books who seemed the right age for the book. I had caregivers tape the shofars together instead of lacing, and the kids were very proud of their creations!

Other than these small discrepancies (the season, the age level), this is a great book and an important conclusion to a wonderful series.

This is an adorable Rosh Hashanah book for preschoolers. Kids love looking at photographs of other small children blowing the shofar and learning about the Jewish New Year. I think the simple text and photographs of actual children create a very appealing way for preschoolers to learn about the Jewish holidays.