On Friday Afternoon: A Shabbat Celebration

PreS-Gr 2–On Friday afternoon, Leelee and her family are busy getting ready for the Jewish Sabbath, which begins at sundown. She and her dog Pickles taste-test the challah rolls, decorate and then put money in a tzedakah box, gather clothes that no longer fit for donation, bathe, and invite friends and neighbors to join them for the Sabbath meal. In a cascading series of events that is reminiscent of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, one thing leads to another. For example, while cleaning up, they find a long-lost trombone which leads to a parade down the street. Playful digital cartoon illustrations depict brown-haired Leelee with large round brown eyes; diverse skin-tones are shown in the extended family and friends. Children will enjoy “reading” the pictures to find fun details like the angry cat and a lost Lego figure. Families who observe the Jewish Sabbath will relate to the frantic rush to get everything prepared in time but terms like challah, tzedakah, mitzvah, kugel, and Shabbat Shalom are left for readers not in the know to guess from context. The author’s note defines a mitzvah as a good deed or charitable act and provides 12 suggestions for how readers can improve the world; these have little connection to the story.