I Love Matzah
(eBook)

Kar-Ben Read-Aloud eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and text highlighting to bring eBooks to life! How many times a day and how many ways can one eat matzah, the quintessential Passover cracker? For a kid, it's all day, every day and in many ways! "If you and your little ones love matzah, and who doesn't, I Love Matzah is the perfect choice to read, especially if you eat it all year round. Author Freidele Galya Soman Biniashvili and illustrator Angelika Scudamore have combined their talents to create a precious little boy who eats matzah throughout the day. There are matzah surprises for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even for snacks. Who knew there were so many different ways to eat matzah? While I Love Matzah is definitely a story designed to be read during Passover, it can be enjoyed any time matzah is served. A yummy addition to your holiday bookshelf." - Marcia Berneger, San Diego Jewish World "This is the perfect time to review a board book for very young children about the pleasures and perils of eating matzah, smack in the midst of the Pesach holiday itself. Biniashvili has penned a simple, short, rhyming story about a toddler child (could be a boy could be a girl, though this male reviewer initially interpreted the art as a boy) who eats matzah in many ways through the Passover holiday -- for breakfast, with cheese, with carrots, and even for dessert. The rhymes are highlighted in the text, easy enough for a child to catch as the book is read loud, and it's easy to imagine happy shouting of rhymes like fish/dish, away/tray, stroll/bowl, and noon/spoon. There are plenty of cues for the Passover holiday, too, with the child eating from special Passover plates, drinking from Passover cups, and a little brother wearing a bib that asks pointedly, 'Got matzah?' Many adults have a love/hate relationship with the bread of affliction, but it is easy to see how this book could get little kids charged up about Passover, and the crumbly fun of matzah consumption. Though typical favorites like matzah pizza, matzah brei, and matzah smeared in hummus or peanut butter are not mentioned, there are plenty of healthy alternatives that are. The 'Happy Passover!' on the final board is one more note of celebration. This book could make kids forget about bread for eight days. I LOVE MATZAH is an authentic and honest depiction of a Jewish toddler -- we know the child is a toddler, from the high chair in the art -- enjoying the most essential of all Passover foods, matzah. This is another of the burgeoning number of picture books with obviously non-white protagonists and families where the non-whiteness is incidental to the story. The only identity that matters in the text is that the family is Jewish, and is the only identity that is referred to by the author and illustrator. The author and artist have done their homework, and understand that children engage with matzah in many ways and at different times, and that part of the fun of the holiday is the many ways in which it can be crumbled. There is a clear nuclear family with mother, father, and two children, sitting together, on the final board. The artwork supports the text well, and together create a book that is suitable for the very young audience for which it is intended. The time period is contemporary, as depicted in the artwork, but the story is timeless and will endure." - Jeff Gottesfeld, Sydney Taylor Shmooze Blog "Matzah - the Passover staple. How many times a day and in how many ways can one eat matzah? For a child, it's all day and in many ways, as demonstrated in 'I Love Matzah.' From matzah with eggs at breakfast, to matzah with yogurt for a snack, as a side dish with dinner, and as a bedtime snack with cheese, matzah is a fun food enjoyed by little ones. The book is ideal for children ages 1 to 4." - Bob Jacob, Co-Editor, CJN "A young boy proudly shares all the delicious ways he likes to eat matzah. Rhyming word