Chil­dren’s

It’s a…It’s a…It’s a Mitzvah

Liz Sune­by and Diane Heiman; Lau­rel Molk, illus.
  • Review
By – November 16, 2012

One look at the cov­er and joy abounds! Danc­ing mice and a wise meerkat draw you into a world of mitz­vah. Sim­ple every­day activ­i­ties demon­strate how eas­i­ly a mitz­vah can be accom­plished all while teach­ing Torah and Tal­mud. The world of mitz­vah is all about the doing’. 

The play­ful char­ac­ters wel­come new friends, share their food with the hun­gry, help the elder­ly, vis­it the sick, pro­vide tzedakah, pro­mote peace, hon­or their par­ents and cel­e­brate Shab­bat. The wise meerkat reminds us at each event that a les­son is being learned by singing his refrain of It’s a …It’s a …It’s a mitzvah”. 

The illus­tra­tions are so engag­ing that the ani­mals’ feel­ings of kind­ness and con­cern are imme­di­ate­ly con­veyed to a child and the authors’ well-cho­sen words speak direct­ly to a child’s heart.

It’s a Mitz­vah is a delight­ful­ly sen­si­tive and yet pow­er­ful means to intro­duce the con­cept of mitz­vah to a child or to a class. High­ly rec­om­mend­ed for chil­dren ages 2 to 8.

Inter­view with Diane Heiman
Chris­tine Maas­dam holds a Mas­ters in Human­i­ties, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions in Muse­um Stud­ies and Cul­tur­al Prop­er­ty Pro­tec­tion. She is cur­rent­ly com­plet­ing her M.L.I.S. Her inter­ests are phi­los­o­phy and the impact of art and tech­nol­o­gy on culture.

Discussion Questions