One Fine Shabbat

May 1, 2016

PreS-K-Three new board books, lovingly produced with bright illustrations and fairly simple text. All three are "insider" stories meant for readers familiar with Jewish customs. One Fine Shabbat is about preschoolers Seth and Sophie Fine, who celebrate one Shabbat with their parents during a rural autumnal picnic. It's a pleasant slice of life but ends oddly and abruptly with the children in their beds and the text "What games do you think/Seth and Sophie will play/When they wake from their naps on/this fine Shabbat day?" with the rest of the day still ahead of them. Shh...Shh...Shabbat highlights the contrast between a busy week and a peaceful Shabbat. Sunday through Thursday's settings appear to be American, Friday includes Hebrew signage, and Saturday reveals that the setting is Jerusalem, where indeed the whole community does slow down for Shabbat. Passover Is Coming! shows the preparations and celebrations of a family. The textual pattern is to end each page with "Passover is coming" until the final page, when "Passover is here!" However, by the last few pages, Passover is already here, with the four questions being asked, the meal being enjoyed, and the afikomen being sought. This makes the refrain awkward and inaccurate.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2016
A Jewish family celebrates the Sabbath.Sophie and Seth Fine and their parents, a Jewish family of European descent, enjoy an autumn picnic, hold hands for the motzi blessing, eat challah bread, and explore a barn together on a pleasant autumn Saturday. The story is told in verse that's too often forced: "The entire Fine family adores Saturdays. / For them, Shabbat's special in so many ways." Mai-Wyss' delicate and muted illustrations, that look to be pencil and watercolor, work well for a quiet fall day, however, giving the endeavor a lift. The pleasure the family takes in its outing and in one another is clear and sweet. Simultaneously publishing is the similarly themed Shh...Shh...Shabbat, by Linda Elovitz Marshall and illustrated by Evgenia Golubeva. Here, animals notice the sounds of the suburbs and the city on various days of the week leading up to Shabbat. Alliteration abounds as the Turtle listens to trucks on Tuesday, Worm hears whistles and whirring wheels on Wednesday, and so on to the peace of Shabbat. On the final double-page spread, five members of an olive-skinned human family sit down to a traditional Shabbat dinner. Unfortunately, the verse is a bit clunky in places, the half-page spreads of brightly colored cartoons don't mesh together well, and the scene with the human family seems tacked on.A fine if not deathless choice for Shabbat reading. (Board book. 2-4)

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