Chil­dren’s

Sid­dur Katan: Shab­bat Prayer Book for Fam­i­lies with Young Children

Jaime Lewis with Michelle V. Katz
  • Review
By – September 5, 2014

This bright, cheery, child-friend­ly, edu­ca­tion­al Shab­bat prayer book for young chil­dren has just about every­thing you might wish to find in such a pub­li­ca­tion: clear fonts in both Hebrew and Eng­lish, adorable illus­tra­tions, trans­la­tions and translit­er­a­tions, direc­tions for when to stand, sit, bow and face the ark, and preschool songs relat­ing to the var­i­ous themes of the day. It is writ­ten with a non­de­nom­i­na­tion­al ap­proach and is a com­pan­ion to a sim­i­lar vol­ume pub­lished for the High Hol­i­days last year. The ser­vice is very abbre­vi­at­ed, with the ages of the chil­dren in mind, but it con­tains many of the same prayers found in their par­ents’ sid­durim. Par­ents and teach­ers can use this book to pre­pare chil­dren ahead of time for syn­a­gogue ser­vices; it can also be used dur­ing the ser­vice itself so the chil­dren can fol­low along at var­i­ous points in their devel­op­ment and learn­ing It also includes the bless­ings for kid­dush, snack time, and hav­dalah, the ser­vice which ush­ers Shab­bat out at the end of the day. This sim­ple sid­dur might be of use for spe­cial youth ser­vices or in youth group set­tings. It pro­vides a love­ly, non-threat­en­ing intro­duc­tion to the world of the syn­a­gogue and is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed for ages 4 – 7.

Michal Hoschan­der Malen is the edi­tor of Jew­ish Book Coun­cil’s young adult and children’s book reviews. A for­mer librar­i­an, she has lec­tured on top­ics relat­ing to lit­er­a­cy, run book clubs, and loves to read aloud to her grandchildren.

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