Chil­dren’s

Izzy the Whiz and Passover McClean

Yael Mer­mel­stein; Car­rie Hart­man, illus
  • Review
By – November 16, 2012
Izzy’s brand new inven­tion, the Super-McDuper Passover McClean, can suck up all of the books, rugs, cur­tains, lamps, tables, chairs, toys, and dish­es and spit them back out clean, washed and dried with­out a trace of hametz. More amaz­ing still, Passover McClean puts every­thing back in its place! But Izzy faces a near dis­as­ter when his inven­tion mal­func­tions with the liv­ing room stuck inside. Luck­i­ly, he is able to fix it before his Mom wakes up and mirac­u­lous­ly, the entire house gleams and sparkles by the ti me the fam­i­ly sits down for the Seder. The crazy, col­or­ful illus­tra­tions per­fect­ly com­ple­ment the imag­i­na­tive, rhyming text, which scans well and is a joy to read. Izzy is adorable with his bright eyes, large round glass­es, wide grin, and base­ball cap, and it is refresh­ing to see a live­ly, vibrant, con­tem­po­rary fam­i­ly cel­e­brat­ing a Jew­ish hol­i­day. A sim­ple two-sen­tence author’s note intro­duces Passover along with a slight­ly longer expla­na­tion of Hametz. Like the old favorite Only Nine Chairs by Deb­o­rah Uchill Miller (Kar-Ben, 1982), the slight, sil­ly sto­ry line will not ele­vate or enhance the reader’s under­stand­ing of the hol­i­day but it is nev­er­the­less a fun, fluffy addi­tion to the Passover book­shelf. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 38.

Read­ing Guide

Rachel Kamin has been a syn­a­gogue librar­i­an and Jew­ish edu­ca­tor for over twen­ty-five years and has worked at North Sub­ur­ban Syn­a­gogue Beth El in High­land Park, IL since 2008, cur­rent­ly serv­ing as the Direc­tor of Life­long Learn­ing. A past chair of the Syd­ney Tay­lor Book Award Com­mit­tee and past edi­tor of Book Reviews for Chil­dren & Teens for the Asso­ci­a­tion of Jew­ish Libraries News & Reviews, her arti­cles and book reviews appear in numer­ous pub­li­ca­tions. She has been a mem­ber of the Amer­i­can Library Association’s Sophie Brody Book Award Com­mit­tee since 2021.

Discussion Questions