Rosh Hashanah Is Coming!

July 11, 2016
This fourth holiday collaboration between Newman and Garofoli (previous books include Shabbat Is Coming! and Hanukkah Is Coming!) delivers a tender sensory introduction to the Jewish New Year. In rhymes with a repeating structure, Newman gently highlights the sounds, sights, and tastes that signal the holiday’s imminence (“Golden leaves fall./ Hear the geese call./ Rosh Hashanah is coming”), as well as customs like playing the shofar (“Blow out—not too fast!/ ‘Tekiyah!’ we’ll blast./ Rosh Hashanah is coming”). As in the previous books, Garofoli’s crisp-edged, canvas-textured artwork creates an inviting domestic backdrop for the festivities, while leaving the door open for adults to discuss the holiday in greater detail as they read. Ages 1–4.

January 1, 2017
Two young members of an extended family get ready for the Jewish New Year. In single-page scenes, these white youngsters, one with short, blond hair topped with a yarmulke and the other sporting brunette pigtails, make traditional round challah bread, blow a shofar, prepare apples to dip in honey, and don brand-new clothes. The preparations culminate in a candlelit family meal and the children's joyous greeting of the New Year at sundown with the exultation "Shana Tovah!" Newman's simple, rhymed couplets describe each scene with economy and are punctuated with the repeated refrain, "Rosh Hashanah is coming." Garofoli's jewel-toned art, which looks as though she created it using a computer, is pleasingly animated and accessible. A simple and joyous introduction to an important holiday. (Board book. 18 mos.-4)

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