Sleep­ing Bear Press has a fan­tas­tic series of alpha­bet books that cov­ers such sub­jects as the library and Greek mythol­o­gy. The for­mat includes a short poem accom­pa­nied by beau­ti­ful illus­tra­tions, with a side­bar on each page that pro­vides fur­ther detail about infor­ma­tion in the poem. This alpha­bet book runs the gamut of Jew­ish his­to­ry includ­ing bible sto­ries (Abra­ham, David, and Noah), life cycle events and hol­i­days, famous Jews like Albert Ein­stein and Marc Cha­gall, and things that are part of Jew­ish cul­ture, like Ellis Island and Klezmer music. Some items are a lit­tle more obscure, like G for Golem, or O is for Oneg Shab­bat. The rich­ness of Jew­ish fam­i­ly life may best be illus­trat­ed by the C poem: ​“C could be the chal­lah that my bubbe used to braid, or C could be the chick­en soup, when I was sick, she made, or choco­late coins on Chanukah we added to our cof­fers. But I say C should be for chai, to ​“life” and all it offers.” While prob­a­bly not for the Ortho­dox, it does cov­er a range of activ­i­ties and infor­ma­tion per­ti­nent to all Jews. For the most part the rhymes are cute, with a com­bi­na­tion of humor and infor­ma­tion. While there are a few minor inac­cu­ra­cies in some of the explana­to­ry infor­ma­tion, the pos­i­tive feel­ing and over­all coher­ence and pre­sen­ta­tion make for a book that is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed. Ages 5 – 9

Read­ing Guide

» Down­load the A is for Abra­ham Read­ing Guide from PJ Library .