Sammy Spider's First Rosh Hashanah

Sammy Spider questions his mother about the curious actions of the Shapiros, the human family whose house also provides him a home, in this holiday picture-book. She explains that the Shapiros are celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and the two arachnids observe the humans putting out

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cards they have received, making challah, slicing apples, setting out honey, and going off to synagogue for services...

In 1993 author Sylvia A. Rouss and illustrator Katherine Janus Kahn published Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah, the first of many picture-book devoted to the curious spider's discovery of various Jewish holidays. Sammy Spider's First Rosh Hashanah is the third in that series, but the first I have picked up. It featured a simple but engaging look at the customs of this time in the Jewish calendar, and appealing collage-style artwork. I had encountered Kahn's work before, in Carol Levin's A Rosh Hashanah Walk, where I was not at all impressed, but her style here is quite different to that in the other book. I enjoyed the use of color here, and the folk-art sensibility, and will definitely track down more books in this series. Recommended to picture-book readers interested in Rosh Hashanah.

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