Happy Easter! Happy Passover!

Happy Easter!  Happy Passover!  In our family, we are celebrating both Easter and Passover this weekend.  I truly love holidays, so having a double holiday weekend is a treat for me.  In the spirit of all holidays and special occasions, we like to celebrate by reading of course!  Since the library’s selection of Easter and Passover books were quite picked over, I decided to look at our own shelves and baskets of books.  I had been meaning to go through my 3 year old’s books , redistributing the books so some new books might take favor.  I found: Company's Coming: A Passover Lift-the-Flap Book  by Joan Holub and Happy Easter Little Critter.

Company's Coming: A Passover Lift-the-Flap Book  by Joan Holub is perfect in the hands of a Lil Guy like mine.  In the book are enough flaps to keep pre-schoolers busy, enough text to reinforce family traditions, and enough to charm to make the book likable and fun.  Company’s Coming features one family sharing its traditions: setting the Seder table, small bits of Hebrew, favorite Passover foods, and a few other customs.  If you celebrate Passover, the book has a very recognizable sequence of events.  If you are not familiar with Passover, the book offers a glimpse into a family Seder.  There is a glossary in the back of the book offering kid friendly definitions lf unfamiliar terms: Afikomen, gefilte fish, matzoh, haggadah and others.   My favorite part of the book is also my favorite part of the meal: the Seder plate.  This version offers lift the flap foods that explain the food and what it represents for the meal.  I enjoyed this book because it doesn’t sensationalize the holiday, it reinforces it.  It shows the strong Jewish tradition of celebrating holidays with those you love in your own home.  Don’t pass this up if you have 3 – 8 year olds, it’s a perfect companion to the holiday.

Happy Easter Little Critter is of course from author Mercer Mayer.  The Little Critter series is a favorite in our house.  We have several book, e-books, and apps all featuring Little Critter.  Kids really like the playful and expressive Little Critter who is often featured with his family.  This book is no different, showing the fun and exciting parts of Easter as well as some obligatory and tiresome parts.  All in all the book is a sweet book just right for adding to your lil one’s Easter Basket. 

  

… and: I promise next year to take the time to find better Easter books to share with my Lil Guy and the blog.  Hope you enjoyed seeing 2 simple books that can be part of your holiday.  Let me know if you have an Easter or Passover book that I should check out.  What's your favorite read of the season?  Happy Easter, Happy Passover, and Happy Weekend to us all.