As a young child, I was charmed by All of a Kind Family, amused by the stories of Chelm and captivated by the Diary of Ann Frank. As a teenager, I was intrigued by Exodus and O Jerusalem. And as an adult, I finally read The Mouse in the Matzah…
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Creating a Safer World for Our Children, re-posted from December 2012
My youngest child went to college at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and last week’s horrible incident “bore a frightening similarity to an attack” that occurred in 2001 when he was a student. Coupled with my own experience in the summer of 1999, it was a difficult…
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Sammy Spider’s First Mitzvah
Available this summer from Kar-Ben, Sammy Spider learns about the mitzvah of visiting the sick. “Achoo!” Uh-oh, Josh has a cold, and when his friend Moti delivers some chicken soup, Sammy asks, “Mother, may I have some chicken soup too?” Can you guess what Mrs. Spider answered?
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A Baht Brit Naming Ceremony
The birth of my fourth grandchild, a girl, gave our family the opportunity to repeat a naming ceremony we first used almost 37 years ago when our second daughter was born. Influenced by the 60’s “do it yourself” The First Jewish Catalog and not yet members of a congregation, my husband…
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Early Childhood Educators take Sammy Spider to the Next Page
Spiders Spin Webs! Posted by PJECC Staff Rosh Hashana came and went, but the Junior class’ obsession with Sammy the Spider, from the book Sammy Spider’s First Rosh Hashana by Sylvia Rouss, decided to stay. The main line in the book is “Spider’s don’t celebrate Rosh Hashana, SPIDERS SPIN WEBS!” Last week we…
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My Newest Book for My Youngest Readers
Sammy Spider’s First Book of Jewish Holidays Sylvia A. Rouss; Katherine Janus Kahn, illus. Kar-Ben Publishing 2013 12 Pages $5.95 ISBN: 978-1467719162 Review by Michal Hoschander Malen, Jewish Book Council Kar-Ben, Sylvia Rouss, and Katherine Janus Kahn, the long-time successful and marvelous Sammy Spider team, have now brought…
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