The Passover Mouse
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
In this charming and witty Passover story about kindness, community, tradition, and forgiveness, a little mouse disrupts a town's preparations for the holiday when it steals a piece of leavened bread—or chometz—just as all the houses have been swept clean in time for the holiday.
It's the morning before the start of Passover, and all the villagers have swept their homes clean of leavened bread, in keeping with the traditions of the holiday. Suddenly, a small mouse steals a piece of bread and tears through the town, spoiling everyone's hard work. But just when it seems as if the townsfolk will never be ready for their Seder, the little mouse's actions unwittingly bring everyone together, to work as a group to save the holiday.
Jewish families at Passover will embrace this rollicking, funny, and ultimately inspiring story—based on an original tale from the Talmud—that weaves together the themes of community, kindness, charity, and forgiveness. It's sure to become a modern holiday classic that's shared year after year among the generations.
An afterword discusses the story from the Talmud that the author used as her inspiration and includes a glossary of terms that will be useful to young readers.
★ "An excellent addition to the Jewish tradition."—Kirkus, starred review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mice are no strangers to Passover picture books, but they're usually anthropomorphized seder participants; here, a mouse is just a mouse. In a small village, a widow named Rivka prepares for Passover by scrubbing her home from top to bottom and rooting out any leavened food which is forbidden to those who strictly observe the holiday. Just when it looks like all the holiday housekeeping is done, a mouse finds a bit of bread and scampers across the village with it, setting off a chain reaction that may require the stringent cleaning to begin all over again. Although the premise may strike many readers as esoteric (it's based on a passage from the Talmud, the ancient commentary on Jewish law), Wieder's brisk prose punctuated by the refrain "A mouse! A mouse! Brought bread into our house!" and Kober's warmhearted cartooning successfully turn the story into one of community cooperation and celebration. There's good news for the mouse, too: Rivka leaves a plate of matzo outside the little rodent's home in the wall. "On this night," she says, "even a thief shouldn't go to bed hungry!" Ages 3 7.
