Awe-some Days: Poems about the Jewish Holidays

K-Gr 3–This book introduces and explores the Jewish holidays using both poetry and prose. Following the Jewish calendar, the holidays begin in September with Rosh Hashanah and end with Tu B’Av in August. Shabbat is included near the end of the book. Each holiday has a short poem and a paragraph explaining the 6 Ws—what, who, why, where, when, and how—of the holiday. Each celebration has its own spread, with soft pencil drawings. The art, while following one family as they celebrate throughout the year, depicts characters of many races and skin tones. Another strength of this poetry collection is that it includes holidays not widely known or observed. These days get just as much space as the holidays that are more prevalent. While there is a lot to appreciate about this book, the poems may be the weakest part. Many of the poems do not have a cadence or rhythm that is easy to find. Often the poems interrupt themselves by adding in an unimportant aside. Much of the text of this book is held up by the information adjacent to the poems.