Celebrate Passover: with Matzah, Maror, and Memories

Holidays Around the World

by Deborah Heiligman

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 Exodus is recalled in ritual, prayer, song, and story. The historical significance of the food at these Passover feasts is also explained, and delicious recipes encourage readers to experience the full flavors of this internationally observed holiday. Rabbi Shira Stern's informative note provides parents and teachers with a historical and cultural background of the celebration of Passover.

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Genres: Picture Books, Holiday, Nonfiction, Jewish, Childrens, Religion

32 pages, Library Binding

First published February 13, 2007

About the author

Deborah Heiligman has been writing for children since she worked at Scholastic News soon after college. Since then she has written more than thirty books for children and teens. Her books include picture books, both fiction and nonfiction, and young adult nonfiction and fiction. Some titles: Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith, a National Book Award finalist; The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos, a Cook Prize Winner and Orbis Pictus honor; Intentions, a Sydney Taylor Award winner, and a picture book series about Tinka the dog. Her latest book is Vincent and Theo: The van Gogh Brothers. For more information please visit www.DeborahHeiligman.com

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, perhaps rating Deborah Heiligman's Celebrate Passover: with Matzah, Maror, and Memories with five stars is a bit overly inflated and enthusiastic, but since I do find that Celebrate Passover: with Matzah, Maror, and Memories is in my opinion a pretty much perfect introduction to the Jewish holiday of Passover for children (from about the age of six onwards), in my opinion, I stand by my five stars. Because while Heiligman's presented text is simply rendered, Celebrate Passover: with Matzah, Maror, and Memories is also more than sufficiently informative theme and contents wise, with the author telling her young readers/listeners basically everything one needs to know to have a nicely decent general understanding of Passover in a clearly understood, engagingly related and detailed but without ever being overwhelming format (showing the story of Moses leading the Jews out of Slavery in Egypt, that Passover commemorates this event, how Passover is observed, that during Passover and also during the Seder meal, no leavened products must be consumed and what the special Seder foods signify and mean, not to mention that Deborah Heiligman also points out in Celebrate Passover: with Matzah, Maror, and Memories that Passover is also one of the main charity providing events for Jews, with food drives and the like).

Educational, engaging and with Deborah Heiligman also providing a delicious looking matzah-based recipe for Passover toffee (which is actually a family recipe and her son's favourite), everything I have textually encountered in Celebrate Passover: with Matzah, Maror, and Memories I have both appreciated and also enjoyed, with the accompanying photographs being nicely diverse as well, from all over the world and mirroring but thankfully not rising above Heiligman's words. But I guess that for me personally, what is the absolute icing on the cake so to speak regarding Celebrate Passover: with Matzah, Maror, and Memories are the bibliographies (featuring both book titles and websites), glossary, the map (showing where pictures are taken and showing that Judaism is a global religion) and last but not least Rabbi Shira Stern's short but nicely academic (and clearly meant for adult readers) afterword.

[Mauri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, finally one I really liked. (Shh, I know I have a non-fiction bias.) Simply written, good for lower elementary grade readers, and lots of pictures that portray a diverse picture of Judaism - not limited to the US, eastern Europe, and Israel, but including communities in Yemen, Uganda, and China.

There's a denser section at the end, good for older children looking for a simple resource for research, a glossary, a simple recipe, a bibliography, and an explanation of the seder that might help an adult not used to Jewish custom.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know the specifics of the Jewish Passover, so I had a fun time learning about it. I loved how the pictures showed Jewish families celebrating all over the world. The back gives a brief summary of all the facts and a Passover Toffee recipe.

I love learning about different holidays and religions. It's beautiful to see families celebrating their beliefs with love and faith, regardless of what they believe or what religion they adhere too.

I've only read three books in the Holiday Around the World series, but I think it's a brilliant idea and niceley done.

[Stefanie Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book explains how and why people celebrate Passover. It's descriptive and each illustration matches the text. At times, the pages are a little busy with the illustrations, captions, titles, and text. It doesn't always follow the same reading pattern which may confuse some readers. The end of the book includes a Table of Contents (? at the end? it was a little confusing), a glossary, an explanation of the Seder Plate, The Four Questions of Passover, additional facts, The Ten Plagues, a recipe, and a note from a Rabbi. I think it would have benefitted to have the Table of Contents at the beginning. As I was reading I noticed the titles of the sections and actually looked back to see if I had missed the Table of Contents. It would have been nice to know that The Ten Plagues, Seder meal, and questions were explained in the back. The book was informative, but could have been organized in a more reader-friendly way.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was excellent. Held the attention of both my children and presents information in an engaging way--I even learned a few things. I really appreciate not only the history of the holiday but the contemporary celebrations included and that is shows people around the world celebrating Passover, including in places many may not associate with the Jewish faith (for example, the family in Uganda conducting the hametz-burning ceremony or the children in China enjoying a bit of matzah at their seder). Back matter adds to the educational value. Definitely recommend this one for a non-fiction look Passover.

[Chanda Scobee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book for a Family Culture Night, where I hosted a table for the library, featuring different diverse books through culture, race, family, practices and beliefs, and so much more, even including neurodivergence, mixed identities, refugees, immigrants, and more. This one includes vocabulary, pictures, and context for information for kids to easily read through. It has a very creative layout that I think is very engaging, but could make reading some of the text difficult for some younger kids.

[Vannessa Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Celebrate Passover with Matzah Maror, and memories did a great job in telling us why Passover is celebrated. The pictures helped tell the story were essential to the story.

What we learned

~why Hametz is not eaten
~why families search for Hametz before Passover starts
~why families in certain areas burn Hametz the morning before the first Passover
~what Seder is

I recommend Celebrate Passover with Matzah Maror, and memories to everyone.

[Shoshanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great Jewish holiday book illustrated with photos by Deborah Heiligman! Like the one I just read, I love that this has photos of Jews from all over the world! :)

[Ellias · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a little bit long for me, but Mommy was able to make it through the whole thing several times before night-night. It shows how different people all over the world celebrate Passover. Some of it is nothing like how my family celebrates, but it gives a good idea of what the holiday is all about.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good resource to teach young children about Passover. The font is nice and large and there are many clear photos of different people celebrating all over the world. Readers should be aware that the book assumes its readers are Jewish (e.g., "We celebrate . . .", "we remember. . .") I found this a bit off-putting as I was reading it to my non-Jewish children who were curious about Passover. I also wish the history was told first, followed by the traditions surrounding it. For instance, the author mentions the plagues on page 4, but then doesn't explain them until page 18. Finally, while there is a pronunciation guide at the back of the book, I wish there had been one in parentheses as each word was first used.

[Ronni]

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