It's a Mitzvah, Grover!

by Tilda Balsley, Ellen Fischer, Tom Leigh (Illustrator)

Overview

Grover does a mitzvah (good deed) by joining his friends to spruce up the neighborhood playground. Even Moishe Oofnik comes out of his trash can to help, eating up all the trash, and separating the cans for recycling.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761375630
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/01/2013
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	2 - 6 Years

About the Author

Tilda Balsley has written many books for Kar-Ben, bringing her stories to life with rhyme, rhythm, and humor. Tilda lives with her husband and their rescue Shih Tzu in Reidsville, North Carolina.

Ellen Fischer was born in St. Louis. Following graduation from Washington University, she taught children with special needs and then ESL at a Jewish Day School. She lives in Greensboro, North Carolina with her husband. They have three children.

Tom Leigh is a children’s book author and longtime illustrator of Sesame Street books. He lives on Little Deer Isle off the coast of Maine.

Editorial Reviews

"Both books are brightly illustrated and explain Jewish concepts clearly, simply, and without condescension. Solid purchases for Jewish preschool programs and other preschools wishing to introduce Jewish holidays and practice." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Grover, Moishe Oofnick (Oscar the Grouch), and the gang learn about helping others (doing mitzvot) and making the world a better place (tikkun olam) in this fun and cheerful tale. When a storm hits the local playground, Avigail, Brosh, and their Shalom Sesame friends decide to clean it up and restore its luster. As they repaint the slide, swings, and other equipment, they learn about basic and mixed colors and realize that everyone can be involved in doing good deeds. Even the grouch Moishe Oofnick sees, to his chagrin, that something as simple as recycling can be a mitzvah. The concept of tikkun olam and the directive to do mitzvot is simplified nicely for children. A bold color palette and an easy storyline will draw and hold attention as young readers find out about colors and mitzvot from familiar characters. Ages 2-6. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Can a book do its job too well? The story is basic enough: Grover and his Israeli friends want to clean up a playground. Moishe Oofnik refuses to help them, because he's a grouch. (He lives in a trash can like Oscar, his American cousin on Sesame Street.) But Moishe is more than willing to accept the discarded trash from the play area. He even weeds out the items that aren't garbage. "Recycling is a mitzvah!" Grover says, to Moishe's chagrin. "Moishe, you are doing a mitzvah." Oddly, though, the simple plot is interrupted, halfway through the book, for a lesson in color theory. As the Muppets paint the swing and slide, they talk about the colors they've chosen. Mahboub has picked yellow, "like sunflowers, loquats, lemons, and grapefruit." Mahboub goes on to explain that yellow and blue make green. The characters even teach some Hebrew words. Doing a mitzvah is helpfully--if not quite correctly--translated as doing "something nice for others." It's hard to fault a book for teaching too many valuable lessons. But after four straight pages, the lecture on colors turns into a distraction. Still, talking about colors is perfectly in character for Muppets. (Grover's friends come from Shalom Sesame, set in Israel.) And when readers take a look at the seesaw, painted in rainbow colors, they may forgive everything. Mitzvahs galore for Muppet lovers. (Picture book. 2-6)

Kirkus Reviews