My First Passover Board Book

This was one of two books I bought my 1-year-old this year, for her second Pesach and my only disappointment is that I've since discovered it comes in a boxed set with a book on Shabbat and one on Chanukah (I think); it's definitely worth spending a bit more and getting all three! This is a catch-all book that includes a little bit on the story of the exodus, Passover customs and the seder itself. There are lots of photos of real kids re-enacting the Moses story - much older than the book's typical reader, but still, it's nice to see children's faces. There's also a page of music notation with a girl singing "Mah Nishtana" - our baby loves to flip to that page and hand the book to one of us to sing for her! If I had to complain about something it would be the final page, featuring Passover colours, which seems a little forced to me - like somebody was trying to figure out what to stick in there. The colours and pictures chosen simply aren't all that interesting ...brown nuts, for example, or a yellow feather (the book doesn't explain how the feather comes into the story). Still, it doesn't detract from the book as a whole, and I'd still love to get the other two in this series. Kudos to DK publishing for helping to fill the vacuum of quality Jewish holiday books. Maybe it'll get some of the Jewish publishers figuring out what they can do to liven up their offerings. This would also make a lovely Passover gift to families with young children (1-4).

If you only can buy one Passover book for your two through six year old, this should be it. The book has more pages than most board books and is a very good value for the money. It tells the story of Passover (many children's books do not) as well as talking about customs and traditions most Jewish children will see. One of the best thing about this series is that it uses faces of real children (ages 5 to 6 approximately) to depict the characters in the book,therefore, making it very eye-appealing to readers. There is something in the book for very young children as well as early readers.