THE STORY OF PASSOVER

The events of the Jewish holiday of Passover are presented for young children.

The story includes Moses, the pharaoh of Egypt, and the 10 plagues but skips the parting of the Red Sea. It does not explain who Moses is, who the Hebrew people are, and why they needed to leave Egypt. Children will need adults to stop to explain such words as pharaoh, plagues, slaves, house of bondage, gnats, boils, and unleavened bread. The illustrations, mostly in blues, greys and browns, look fairly modern and not representative of the ancient time period; one interior shows the inside of a house overrun with frogs, with a fireplace, empty shelves, and a table and bench that look unremarkable except for the pyramids visible through the window. Most of the people in the illustrations look similar to one another, with dark hair and round faces, and their skin tones are inconsistent. The words Lord and God are used interchangeably, as in “The Lord was angry. He sent gnats…. / Then God sent flies…. / The Lord sent boils”—a potentially confusing usage. This reprint of a 2001 edition is slightly larger than the original and features a cleaner design, but it is still not a particularly helpful treatment for the board-book set.

Board-book audiences need a story that is simpler and easier to understand than this one.