What an amazing story. My daughter wept as we read through the pages together...realizing that character Rachel could not go out for the winter because she had outgrown her shoes was just the beginning of this beautiful, sorrowful tale about what could have been.
As our children are learning tolerance and acceptance in today's society, it is unthinkable for us to explain the devestation in the lives of these courageous Jews.

This book tells a fiction story about a young girl in a photograph from Roman Vishniac's book. He went to Eastern Europe prior to the Holocaust to photograph a dying civilization: the Jews of Eastern Europe. This story provides a charming explanation for one of the most poignant photos in his book. It is also a wonderful introduction to the history of the Holocaust for young Jewish children. It portrays the horrors of war to any child. Although Miriam Nerlove does not misrepresent the history, she manges to end her story on a note of hope.

My 13-year-old son, who has mild autism, just LOVES this book. With his difficulties in understanding the relatively abstract concepts involved in learning religion, it's been a little tough keeping him interested in learning this kind of material. This book, however, is very appealing to him, and he and I have read it together many, many times. This book is beautifully illustrated. The explanations of the commandments are in relatively simple language that he can easily understand, appreciate, and apply to his own life. A real winner!

The 10 Commandments can seem so remote to a young child. This book of gently textured illustrations and clear, simple text is a wonderful find. It presents the ancient story behind the commandments and then brings the commandments to life within the context of a modern Jewish child's everyday experience.

Miriam Nerlove's beautiful watercolours capture the warmth and happiness of Shabbat. The narrator, a little girl, tells in simple rhyming text about all the good things her family does on Shabbat, her "favorite day!" When we read this book, my little son, aged two, said, "Again! Again!" The only reason I docked a point was that as a vegan, I was disappointed that the text refers to eating chicken. Fortunately for us the pictures do not show the chicken clearly, so I just say "tofu" instead of "chicken" when I read it to my son.

The reason I like this book was the way little girl looked around the house to find the noise that was keeping her awake. While doing this she overcame her fear of being in the dark while figuring out what was making the noise in the house.