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HILLEL TAKES A BATH

Name: HILLEL TAKES A BATH
Author: Vicki L. Weber
ISBN: 978-1-68115-546-3

by Vicki L. Weber ; illustrated by John Joven ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2019

An appealing and effective age-appropriate introduction to some of Hillel’s teachings.

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A Jewish sage confounds his students with his surprising teaching methods in this story based on a midrash.

Brandishing a “large linen cloth,” Hillel announces he will show how “to do a mitzvah.” His students know some of the 613 mitzvot, Torah commandments that teach people how to act. They remember how Hillel ingeniously taught the Torah to a man who wanted to learn the whole thing while standing on one foot: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.…That is the whole Torah. Now go and study.” Guessing at the rabbi’s intentions, the students suggest possible mitzvot: giving the cloth as tzedakah (charity), using it as a Sabbath tablecloth, or shading his parents with it. To demonstrate his lesson, Hillel shows them workers cleaning the king’s statue. The king’s image should be respected, but his students must understand something more important: that they “are made in God’s image.” He says: “When we keep ourselves clean, we honor God. And that is why taking a bath is an important mitzvah.” The digital illustrations have an animation aesthetic, and the people represented have diverse skin colorings and dark hair, realistic for the ancient Middle Eastern setting. The active-learning approach will engage young readers at home or in religious classes.

An appealing and effective age-appropriate introduction to some of Hillel’s teachings. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-68115-546-3

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Apples & Honey Press

Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HEALTH & DAILY LIVING | CHILDREN'S RELIGIOUS FICTION

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ASTRONAUT HAYLEY'S BRAVE ADVENTURE

by Hayley Arceneaux ; illustrated by Lucie Bee ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2025

Sweet but misleading.

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A plucky child becomes a space traveler.

Arceneaux was the first pediatric cancer survivor and the first with a prosthetic body part to become an astronaut, part of the first all-civilian space mission in 2021. The author, who in 2022 published the adult memoir Wild Ride and its 2023 adaptation for middle-grade readers, here shares her story with an even younger audience. Told in the third person, the narrative emphasizes the bravery she summoned as she coped with a cancer that left her with a prosthetic leg bone and knee (hinted at with an incision line in one illustration) and went on to become a space traveler. Curiously, Hayley and her astronaut colleagues are portrayed as children. They play with a “stuffed toy alien,” and in an imagined episode, Hayley ventures outside the spacecraft to perform a repair. Accompanied by softly hued illustrations with character designs that recall Precious Moments figurines, the narrative emphasizes familiar details of space travel that will appeal to children; both their bodies and their food float in zero gravity. The mission splashes down safely, and Hayley rushes to hug her mom. Though Arceneaux was the youngest astronaut to have orbited the Earth, she was an adult when she did so. The odd choice to depict her as a child reduces her compelling story to a fantasy. Arceneaux is white; other characters are diverse.

Sweet but misleading. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2025

ISBN: 9780593443903

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Convergent

Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S HEALTH & DAILY LIVING

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PIRATES DON'T TAKE BATHS

by John Segal and illustrated by John Segal ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2011

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Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)