Chil­dren’s

The Place That I Love

R.G. Cohen; Alexan­der Lewis, illus.
  • Review
By – November 14, 2011
The cen­ter of Jew­ish life is the Jew­ish home. It is the place where edu­ca­tion begins and where fam­i­ly and friends come to gath­er. It is a venue of end­less pos­si­bil­i­ties and end­less oppor­tu­ni­ties, espe­cial­ly when it comes to doing mitzvot. In this book, R.G. Cohen takes us from room to room in a tra­di­tion­al Jew­ish home and shows us the many mitzvot that are con­nect­ed to each space. The book begins at the front door, show­ing a young Jew­ish boy kiss­ing a mezuzah, and pro­ceeds to show us how learn­ing the Torah is con­nect­ed to the study, our com­mon liv­ing spaces are for cel­e­brat­ing sim­chot and hav­ing guests, kashrut hap­pens in the kitchen and Shab­bat hap­pens in the din­ing room. There are sev­er­al oth­er scenes intro­duced, and all of them illus­trate oth­er impor­tant mitzvot in Judaism. The illus­tra­tions are skill­ful­ly done, and the read­er def­i­nite­ly gets a feel of how impor­tant the home is, espe­cial­ly in Judaism. How­ev­er, the book is not with­out its faults. Because the author chose to write the book in rhyme, the word choic­es are often awk­ward. More specif­i­cal­ly, though, instead of writ­ing a con­cise and thought­ful­ly orga­nized book, the flow seems a lit­tle ran­dom. The book is clear­ly aimed at the obser­vant com­mu­ni­ty, as evi­denced by the style of the illus­tra­tions. Ages 3 – 6.
Kendra Fuchs is a Jew­ish edu­ca­tor. She lives in Los Ange­les with her hus­band and her two young children.

Discussion Questions