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Measuring a Year: A Rosh Hashanah Story
By Regan McMahon,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Intriguing holiday book asks, "How do you measure a year?"
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What's the Story?
In MEASURING A YEAR: A ROSH HASHANAH STORY, an unseen narrator poses the question, "How do you measure a year?" Then a variety of ways are shown on the following pages: by how much you grew, by all the things you learned, the kids you met, the times you were brave, by weddings and bar mitzvahs, and more. The story ends with a big celebration where the diverse characters in the story eat the holiday's symbolic foods together: apples and honey. The final spread gives some basic information about the significance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as they mark the beginning of the Jewish New Year. "These holidays offer a season for looking backward, for 'measuring' the year, and measuring ourselves."
Is It Any Good?
This upbeat picture book asks provocative questions that should be good conversation starters for kids and adults. Measuring a Year: A Rosh Hashanah Story is a fun holiday book, but it's also a clever way to get kids to think about all the changes and accomplishments in their lives as time passes: What stands out as important, what has the most meaning for them, and what could they have done better? There's a lot of substance in this book, delivered with a light touch and Zara González Hoang's kid-friendly, cartoon-like illustrations.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about some of the ways time is measured in Measuring a Year: A Rosh Hashanah Story. Is it fun to look back and think about what you did in the past year that made it special?
Does your family celebrate Rosh Hashanah? How is it different from other New Year holidays, like Lunar New Year or New Year's Eve? Why are holidays important to families?
How do you measure a year: by what you did or how you grew? In what other ways could you measure your year?
Book Details
- Author: Linda Elovitz Marshall
- Illustrator: Zara González Hoang
- Genre: Picture Book
- Topics: Holidays
- Character Strengths: Gratitude
- Book type: Non-Fiction
- Publisher: Abrams
- Publication date: August 16, 2022
- Number of pages: 32
- Available on: Nook, Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Award: Common Sense Selection
- Last updated: September 22, 2022
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