Because Passover starts on Friday, we thought we’d review a suitably timed book. Baby librarian Tilly and her mum Jen review the Jewish ABCs board book My First Jewish Baby Book by Julie Merberg, illustrated by Beck Feiner.
Tilly reviews My First Jewish Baby Book
I liked this book. It has lots of good colours and is bright and cheerful. My favourite page is C is for Challah, because Challah is very yummy. It’s the best part of going to Shabbat dinner, and it’s even better when my grandpa uses it to make French toast. It’s not the best bread EVER (that would be sourdough from the French bakery near my house) but it’s pretty good. The book also teaches you about other Jewish things that my grandparents and Aunt Katie sometimes talk about, so that’s cool too. Mummy and Daddy hardly ever talks about those things. Maybe they aren’t Jewish.
Jen reviews My First Jewish Baby Book
Well, Tilly is right — the sourdough from the French bakery is better than challah, her grandpa makes excellent challah French toast, and I’m not Jewish. This book is a great introduction to Jewish concepts, rituals, and foods, and some Yiddish terms, which is helpful not just for babies but also for non-Jews who marry into Jewish families. This is a fun and lively ABCs book that we enjoyed reading and learning from. There is one letter that made me laugh, perhaps unintentionally — ‘X is for Xylophone, because Jews love music.’ That seems to be a little bit of a stretch, but from what I’ve seen in reading lots of ABCs books, X is a hard letter. I guess there aren’t any particularly Jewish things that begin with the letter ‘X’.