Review: a splendid book about the Jewish holiday of Passover -- a fine children's book that even this big kid loves !!!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 20, 2014
Anat Umansky has written an exceptional book for young children that even this big kid loves!  In this book, Anat explores the history of the Passover holiday by telling the story of how the Jewish people, enslaved by the Egyptians because the Egyptian king (The Pharaoh) was in actuality afraid they would grab his power, were eventually freed by The Pharaoh and allowed to leave Egypt. However, there’s actually much more to the story that just that. I should also add that I am extremely impressed by the beautiful, colorful illustrations by Vladimir Solop that enhance the book greatly; and grownups can happily bond with small children as they read this book together! The vocabularies of young kids will certainly be enhanced by this fine book and there’s even an audio edition of the book that is complimentary with the Kindle purchase of the book.When the story begins, we learn that the Egyptian king, named The Pharaoh, was afraid the Jews would take his power because they were large in numbers and so he moved quickly to enslave them and make their lives terribly hard—they even had to build “the cities of Pithom and Ramses.” But when that didn’t work to reduce the numbers of the Jews, Pharaoh then decreed that “every Hebrew newborn son” must be thrown into the Nile River—and then we learn how the parents of Moses, a newborn son of Yocheved and Amram, hid their newborn son until they couldn’t any longer and so then Yocheved and Amram sent Miriam, Moses’ older sister, to the Nile River with him where Miriam placed Moses carefully in a basket (and with some bulrushes to hide him) into the river with so much hope that he would survive.But then another incredible thing happened—the Pharaoh’s daughter saw Moses in the river when she went to bathe there and she took him with her to the Egyptian palace and Miriam told the Pharaoh’s daughter that she knew of a woman who could care for the young baby Moses—Yocheved herself! Thus Moses’ mother could care for him after all!Eventually Moses becomes a man and learns of his true Jewish roots—and thus began quite a life for Moses. Without spoiling it all for you, I will say that Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating a Jewish slave and then Moses fled Egypt to avoid possibly being killed as punishment—and Moses began to live “in the land of Midian” where Moses married Zipora, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian. Yet so much more will happen to Moses—he eventually returns to Egypt to demand freedom for the Jews and after many plagues The Pharaoh actually (and finally) agrees to let the Jewish slaves go—but what will happen to the Jews when Pharaoh changes his mind and has his troops go after the Jews to try to force them to return to Egypt and be slaves once more? The story of Moses and the burning bush is just one incredible aspect of this tale not to mention the rest of the story!As always, Anat Umansky writes with great sensitivity, understanding and knowledge about Biblical events and that’s grand. I love this book about Moses, the Jewish slaves in Egypt, how they were eventually freed by the Egyptian King, and more! I highly recommend this book for kids who would benefit from learning this Old Testament Biblical story and adults who appreciate very high quality children’s books about Biblical times and important events will be thrilled to own this book as well. Great work, Anat and Vladimir—please keep these fantastic books coming!