Shabbos Is Coming! We're Lost in the Zoo
PreSchool-Grade 1?Moshe and Sarah are lost in the zoo on a Friday afternoon as Shabbat is approaching. The clock hands on the sun mark the time passing as the brother and sister ask a variety of animals for help in finding their way out. The animals ignore the children because they are too busy in their own preparations for the Sabbath to help. (What kind of message is that?) Two hours later, the giraffe finally puts the children on the right path, and they arrive home just in time for their pre-Shabbat bath. There is little tension in the rhymed text, and readers do not feel any sense of urgency. The expressions on the children's faces never change, reinforcing this feeling. Both youngsters have a sweet, semi-smile throughout the book, even when the text reads, "Sarah asks with a tear." Fran Manushkin's Starlight and Candles (S & S, 1995) is a better picture book about Shabbat.?Yapha Nussbaum Mason, Brentwood Lower School, Los AngelesCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.