Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Passover: With Matzah, Maror, and Memories - Softcover

Heiligman, Deborah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1426306296 ISBN 13: 9781426306297

Publisher: National Geographic Children's Books, 2010

Synopsis

The most celebrated holiday in the Jewish year, Passover commemorates the Exodus of Hebrew slaves from Egypt to freedom over 3,500 years ago. This colorful book explores the many forms that this weeklong celebration takes worldwide. Deborah Heiligman’s rich text details the long, lavish meals called seders, at which the Exodus is recalled in ritual, prayer, song, and story. With historical significance of traditional Passover feasts, delicious recipes encourage readers to experience the full flavor of this internationally observed holiday.

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About this title

About the Author

The award-winning author of 15 books for children, Deborah Heiligman has written three books for National Geographic: Honey Bees; Babies: All You Need To Know; and High Hopes: A Photobiography of John F. Kennedy. Her best-known and best-selling book outside NGS is From Caterpillar to Butterfly (HarperCollins, 1996).
Deborah specializes in writing about complex subjects for young people, particularly in the areas of science and social studies. She is equally at home writing for early readers and middle grade students. Her experience as a religious studies major at Brown University has been put to good use in working on this series. Deborah lives in New York City with her husband, author Jonathan Weiner, her sons Aaron and Benjamin, and cat, Peanut Butter.

From Booklist

Part of the Holidays Around the World series, this slim entry is informative though sometimes disjointed. It begins with a short recitation of the Passover story and then moves directly into how the holiday is celebrated. Surprisingly, the next spread, in words and photographs, focuses on the Orthodox way of preparing for the holiday. The photo shows a family covering their kitchen in aluminum foil to prevent leavened crumbs from getting into the home--hardly a common practice. The book goes on to explain Passover traditions and offers a more detailed version of the Passover story. A concluding essay by a rabbi offers thoughts on the meaning of the holiday. The clean format evokes the spring holiday, but the book's visual emphasis is also on Jewish communities in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and elsewhere. More information about these diverse groups, other than the simple picture captions that identify them, would have been welcome because the arresting photos are the book's initial draw. Appended information includes the Four Questions and instructions for setting the Seder table. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: National Geographic Children's Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1426306296
• ISBN 13: 9781426306297
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32