By Rocco Staino
Agust 25, 2010
With the high holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur quickly approaching, now's a great time to teach kids about Jewish religion and culture.
Here are some titles that are sure to enrich your collection-and help students better understand the Jewish people.
Long before Deborah Heiligman was busy accepting honors for Charles and Emma (Holt, 2008), she wrote the "Holidays Around the World" series. One of the titles, Celebrate Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur (National Geographic, 2007), offers clear, informative text and sharp photographs that make it the perfect starting point and a handy reference for background information. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement.
The days in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are known as the Days of Awe or the Days of Repentance. Eric Kimmel's Days of Awe: Stories for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (Viking, 1991) explains the holidays for general readers and then offers three tales charmingly adapted from traditional sources. Accompanied by Erika Weihs's paintings, each selection is preceded by a brief paragraph that provides some background and insight on three important elements of the holidays--charity, prayer, and repentance. Kimmel has written several children's books based on traditional tales that center around Rosh Hashanah. Gershon's Monster: A Story for the Jewish New Year (Scholastic, 2000), a traditional Hasidic legend about a baker who never repents, won the 2000 Sydney Taylor Award for Best Children Jewish Book.
Both Kimmel and Richard Unger have adapted a Yiddish story about the mystery of the flying Rabbi by folklorist I. L. Pertz. Librarians may want to compare and contrast both books-Kimmel's Even Higher!: A Rosh Hashanah Story (Holiday House, 2009) and Ungar's Even Higher (Tundra Books, 2007)-to explore their interpretations of the story.
As in all holidays, tradition plays a big role in Jewish holidays, and educators can use several picture books to teach about these customs. On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, many Jews go to a body of water and cast away pieces of bread to symbolize discarding their mistakes. In New Year at the Pier (Dial, 2009) by April Halprin Wayland, this tradition, called Tashlich, shows a modern day family partaking in the New Year ritual. The book won the 2010 Sydney Taylor Award and has a book trailer available on youtube. Another old tradition called Kapores, in which a clucking chicken is held over someone's head for good luck, is the basis of Erica Silverman's When the Chickens Went on Strike (Dutton, 2003), illustrated by Mathew Trueman.
The blowing of the ram's horn, called the shofar, is a tradition that music teachers may want to explore with Sounds of the Shofar (HarperCollins, 1998), written by Leslie Kimmelman and illustrated by John Himmelman,or Fran Manushkin's Sophie and the Shofar: A New Year's Story (URJ, 2001), illustrated by Rosalind Charney Kaye. A global history event can be taught with The Secret Shofar of Barcelona(Kar-Ben, 2009) by Jacqueline Dembar Greene, which is set during the Spanish Inquisition and involves a boy and his father bravely crafting a symphony employing the shofar as a musical instrument, so the Jewish community can hear its beloved sound on Rosh Hashanah right under the noses of the Spanish nobility.
Two friends, Judyth Groner and Madeline Wikler, began a small publishing company in 1975 called Kar-Ben Copies to provide quality Jewish content. They published 150 titles on Jewish topics before being acquired in 2001 by Lerner Publishing Group, which publishes the "Sammy Spider" and "Engineer Ari" series. The two series help introduce children to various Jewish holidays and rituals. In Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride (Kar-Ben, 2008), author Deborah Bodin Cohen and illustrator Shahar Kober use the opening of the first train line between Jerusalem and Jaffa as the foundation for their holiday story. Sammy Spider's First Rosh Hashanah (Kar-Ben, 1996) written by Sylvia Rouss and illustrated by Katherine Janus Kahn introduces holiday customs like sending greeting cards and food, such as apples and honey, in a story that centers around a mischievous spider.
There are fewer books that deal solely with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. One worth considering is Jacqueline Jules's The Hardest Word (Kar-Ben, 2001), illustrated by Katherine Janus Kahn, which uses a classic folktale featuring Ziz, a clumsy but goodhearted bird, to illustrate the importance of atonement.
As the baseball pennant race heats up in September, you my want to share Hammerin' Hank: The Life of Hank Greenberg (Walker, 2006) written by Yona Zeldis McDonough and illustrated by Malcah Zeldis. The picture book tells the story of Greenberg, the first Jewish baseball player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and touches on the anti-Semitism he encountered and the 1934 decision he made as a Detroit Tiger, when he debated whether to go to synagogue or play an important game during the High Holy Days. Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to be Kosher (Random, 2010) written by Laurel Snyder and illustrated by David Goldin can be shared with kids at any time. It's a humorous tale about a pig who wants to experience Shabbat dinner-but he does so as a guest rather than as a dish.
Thanks so much for sharing the link to the Sydney Taylor award-winner's(NEW YEAR AT THE PIER's) book trailer.
For some reason, your link didn't work for me. This one should:
http://www.aprilwayland.com/new-yearat-the-pier/book-trailer/
Posted by April Halprin Wayland on August 30, 2010 06:38:32PM
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