Shira learns about Yom Kippur in school: how it is the holiest day of the year, how we should ask ourselves if we’ve been the best person we can be in the past year, and the importance of saying we’re sorry. When she goes to Temple with her parents on Yom Kippur, they are each wrapped in a talit and are carrying prayer books called Machzors. She wants to pray to God like her parents are doing but she has not yet learned Hebrew. She has learned all the Hebrew letters so, when she hears the Shofar blown, she gets an idea. She goes up to the bima and asks the Rabbi if she can say a prayer. She sings the alphabet song she learned at school and the “whole Temple was filled with Shira’s letters.” Afterwards, she receives congratulations from the congregation and the following year she can read the prayer book herself.
Children will enjoy Erin Taylor’s appealing cover of big-eyed Shira and the lively, full-page color illustrations. The text includes Hebrew greetings, words for holidays and various blessings. The book is part of a continuing series about Shira with more books to come. Shira is a composite of Mrs. Sabbag’s Hebrew School students over the 15-plus years she’s been teaching. It will be very helpful to teach young students in Jewish pre-schools, day schools and Sunday schools about the holidays at their age level.
Recommended for ages 5 – 8.