Chil­dren’s

Passover Splen­dor: Cher­ished Objects for the Seder Table

Bar­bara Rush
  • Review
By – August 6, 2012
Hag­gadot, seder plates, cups, and tex­tiles are the cher­ished objects dis­cussed and show­cased in this hand­some book. The text is both schol­ar­ly and acces­si­ble, giv­ing the ori­gin and his­to­ry of Passover and the order of the Seder before pro­ceed­ing, chap­ter by chap­ter, to lucid dis­cus­sions of the his­tor­i­cal and rit­u­al sig­nif­i­cance of the objects them­selves. Sim­i­lar in design and con­cept to Rush’s ear­li­er book, The Lights of Hanukkah (Stew­art, Tabori and Chang, 2003), it is lav­ish­ly illus­trat­ed with about 60 pieces, ancient and mod­ern, from muse­um and pri­vate col­lec­tions through­out the world. The for­mat is also wor­thy of note: heavy paper, sharp col­or repro­duc­tion, bal­anced page com­po­si­tion, and an invit­ing vari­ety of type sizes. Each illus­tra­tion is clear­ly cap­tioned, with its source giv­en. Con­clud­ing with Seder bless­ings and songs (but no index), this is suit­able for gift giv­ing and for library col­lec­tions. For ages 14 – adult.
Lin­da R. Sil­ver is a spe­cial­ist in Jew­ish children’s lit­er­a­ture. She is edi­tor of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Jew­ish Libraries’ Jew­ish Val­ues­find­er, www​.ajl​jew​ish​val​ues​.org, and author of Best Jew­ish Books for Chil­dren and Teens: A JPS Guide (The Jew­ish Pub­li­ca­tion Soci­ety, 2010) and The Jew­ish Val­ues Find­er: A Guide to Val­ues in Jew­ish Children’s Lit­er­a­ture (Neal-Schu­man, 2008).

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