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The joyous cover of Passover: Celebrating Now Remembering Then, with family members seemingly dancing through Passover preparations sets the mood for this festive children's picture book about Passover. The musical notes, flowers and Passover symbols that decorate the book's endpapers continue the buoyant mood of Passover: Celebrating Now Remembering Then.

Passover by Harriet Ziefert: The Story

The story begins with two pages of text that answer the questions, "Why do we tell the Passover story year after year, time and time again?

What do we remember?" The design of the pages makes it easy to absorb a good bit of information about Passover. The information is separated into very short paragraphs, each beginning with, "We remember" in large bold type and each paragraph is separated by white space from the next paragraph. This layout keeps all of the information from being overwhelming and alerts the reader to spend time on each paragraph before moving on to the next. After this text-intensive beginning, the rest of the book is very different.
Author Harriet Ziefert now focuses on a family's preparations for, and enjoyment of, the Passover Seder, with an emphasis on the traditions and rituals and their meanings. Throughout the book, the artwork greatly adds to the reader's enjoyment.

Passover: The Artwork by Karla Gudeon

The lively and colorful folk-art inspired paintings by Karla Gudeon enhance both the story of a contemporary family's Passover Seder and the related biblical stories that the Seder traditions and symbols represent.

Fold-out pages are used to great effect to cover Passover, present and past. For example, on one double page spread, the page on the left explains that as part of their Seder, the family eats "a mixture of apples, nuts, raisins, and wine" as a reminder of the Israelite slaves. The right page shows a plate full of the mixture, but when you lift and open it out, you see a large illustration of the slaves making mortar and bricks for the pyramids of the Pharaoh. As the reader goes through the book, the pages reflect "now" until folded out when they reveal "then" - the history that the "now" activities symbolize.

Passover: Author Harriet Ziefert and Illustrator Karla Gudeon

Author and former elementary school teacher Harriet Ziefert has written more than 200 children's books, including picture books and beginning reader books. Prints and paintings by artist Karla Gudeon can be found in galleries and collections in the United States and abroad. Passover: Celebrating Now Remembering Then is the second collaboration between Ziefert and Gudeon. Their first book, Hanukkah Haiku (read my review), is for a younger audience (ages 3-6) than is Passover: Celebrating Now Remembering Then. Hanukkah Haiku was published in 2008.

Passover: Celebrating Now Remembering Then: My Recommendation

I recommend Passover: Celebrating Now Remembering Then for parents and children to enjoy together, both families who celebrate Passover and families who want their children to learn about the Jewish holiday. In addition, interested children, ages 8-14, may enjoy reading the book independently. Besides the quality of the writing and the artwork, I was also impressed with the quality of the book itself - the thick smooth pages, the attractive dust jacket and cover, and the numerous foldout pages. This is a book that should last through many years of Passover celebrations.