Lit­tle Shi­ra is back in teacher Galia Sab­bag’s series about a young girl who is eager to learn about her Jew­ish her­itage with the enthu­si­as­tic sup­port of her lov­ing par­ents and cre­ative teach­ers. This time she is learn­ing about Yom Ha’Atz­maut, Israel’s Inde­pen­dence Day, and her class is focus­ing on many facts about life in Israel and the cul­ture of Israeli soci­ety. Shi­ra decides to make some Israeli flags to dec­o­rate her home in hon­or of the hol­i­day but has trou­ble draw­ing the Magen David, the big blue star which is the cen­tral sym­bol of the flag. Unsure of how to draw the com­pli­cat­ed fig­ure, she asks her par­ents for help. The sim­ple, nat­ur­al way that help is asked for and received is one of the under­ly­ing mes­sages of the book in con­junc­tion with the more obvi­ous lessons about Israel which are beau­ti­ful­ly pre­sent­ed. The col­or illus­tra­tions are appeal­ing and inte­gral to the sto­ry and Hebrew is includ­ed in an organ­ic way, ful­ly explained and appro­pri­ate­ly placed in context.

Use­ful for both class­room and home, Shi­ra con­tin­ues to edu­cate chil­dren ages 5- – 8 about Jew­ish life in a charm­ing and cre­ative way.