Of potential use in settings that have other resources on or background knowledge of Passover.
Noa shares her Passover matzah.
Everyone usually shares at school lunch, but one day, the redheaded White girl insists on eating her own lunch. In very simple rhyming couplets, Noa quickly tells her tablemates the reason for eating matzah during Passover. During the Jews’ escape from Egypt, Noa, says, matzah was first created, because “with no time for bread to rise, / it came out flat, about this size.” (The size of the Israelites’ unleavened flatbread is not mentioned in Exodus, a misleading detail evidently added for the sake of the rhyme.) The illustration style sets these pages aside from the modern-day story and renders the Jews and Pharaoh with the same brown skin. Noa brings extra matzah for the rest of the weeklong holiday so that her friends can taste it in different ways: “chocolate matzah, matzah brei… / then a matzah pizza pie!” The book assumes the audience’s familiarity with Passover if not Noa’s racially and ethnically diverse classmates’; there is no glossary and only a limited holiday endnote. At the end, “Noa says, ‘Now you can see / what my matzah means to me. / Sharing it with you this way / makes it a perfect holiday.’ ” This sentiment is, sadly, undercut by Noa’s omission of the traditional welcoming of the Prophet Elijah to the seder. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 27.1% of actual size.)
Of potential use in settings that have other resources on or background knowledge of Passover. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5415-8668-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
A holiday outing that doesn’t quite satisfy.
In this follow-up to singer Parton and co-author Perl’s Billy the Kid Makes It Big (2023), literal and figurative bumps in the road imperil the touring canine country star’s promise to be home for Christmas.
Inspired by one of Parton’s holiday songs, the tale sees Billy, a small brown French bulldog, and bandmates Bo, Buster, and Binky boarding a tour bus for “pawsome” glimpses of natural wonders along with meetings with fans and “puparazzi.” Then, although Billy has sent many letters home promising to be there for the holiday, an invitation to play Barkafeller Center on Christmas Day instantly changes his tune. “Billy was happy. Though he still felt a little…he wasn’t sure what.” Readers may be excused for having mixed feelings about his mixed feelings, not to mention his tersely unapologetic note to the folks. But when, thanks to a bus-busting rock in the road on Christmas Eve, it looks like the band will have to contrive their own celebration (“Silent night, howly night”), Billy remembers that he started making music in the first place for his loved ones. He has no problem bagging the big concert (Fans? What fans? Contract? What contract?) when Dolly herself rolls up in her own bus to offer a ride back to his “Tennessee mountain home” in time for a small show for “the most important audience in the world.” While Billy cuts an endearing figure in Haley’s cartoonish illustrations, his willingness to disappoint first family, then fans may have readers feeling less than cheery.
A holiday outing that doesn’t quite satisfy. (lyrics to Parton’s “Comin’ Home for Christmas”) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9780593755006
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
A high-spirited night free of frights.
Actor Plaza and writer/producer Murphy join forces for another bewitching picture book.
Halloween is always a dismal time for Pheenie the witch, because her parties are such failures—until the day spunky young Luna Lopez, who yearns to be a helpful bruja like her grandma in Puerto Rico, appears on her porch. The two strike a bargain: Pheenie will instruct Luna in spellcasting in return for Luna’s help planning and organizing a properly spook-tacular event. Luna helps Pheenie clean up the house and encourages her to substitute tasty cider for wormy trick-or-treat apples and to put out kid-friendly snacks like candy corn and cookies in place of the witch’s typical candied spiders and baked troll fingers. The effervescent narrative is further stoked by several rhymed spells and suitably energetic illustrations. Peck sets the tale in a racially diverse urban neighborhood, and as the witching hour approaches (at around eight p.m., according to the clock on the mantel), in troops a group of eager-looking young partygoers in upscale costumes to play hide-and-seek with real ghosts and dance to a goblin band. It’s a Halloween hullaballoo! Elderly Pheenie is pale-skinned; Luna is tan-skinned.
A high-spirited night free of frights. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9780593693018
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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