Chil­dren’s

Out and About: A Tale of Giving

  • Review
By – July 18, 2023

Daniel sees his par­ents car­ry­ing mys­te­ri­ous box­es through the snow and won­ders what they are doing. They tell him only that they are out and about.” Even­tu­al­ly, he dis­cov­ers that his fam­i­ly is busy help­ing their neigh­bors, the Cohens, nav­i­gate some dif­fi­cult times. They do not receive recog­ni­tion for their efforts; they are help­ing for the pure joy of aid­ing others.

A note teach­es the read­er the con­cept of tzedakah and explains that this is one of the most impor­tant com­mand­ments in the Torah. It lists the eight lev­els of tzedakah as set out by Mai­monides, the most praise­wor­thy being that of anony­mous giving.

With beau­ti­ful col­or illus­tra­tions and a mul­ti­cul­tur­al cast of char­ac­ters, Out and About high­lights the joy of giv­ing with no expec­ta­tion of reward. This is a won­der­ful sto­ry to read aloud with chil­dren as they devel­op their own capac­i­ty for help­ing those in need.

Michal Hoschan­der Malen is the edi­tor of Jew­ish Book Coun­cil’s young adult and children’s book reviews. A for­mer librar­i­an, she has lec­tured on top­ics relat­ing to lit­er­a­cy, run book clubs, and loves to read aloud to her grandchildren.

Discussion Questions