One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe

by Dara Horn, Theo Ellsworth (Illustrator)

Overview

A lost afikoman, a time-traveling talking goat, and a never-ending seder illuminate the meaning of Passover in Dara Horn’s hilariously deadpan graphic novel.

A family sits at the Passover seder table, but cannot find their afikoman—the hidden matzah required to end the meal—and as a result, they are trapped at a seder that cannot end. Six months in, a wisecracking talking goat shows up at their door with bad news: Thousands of years of previous seders have accumulated underneath their seder, and their afikoman is stuck in one of them. Now the family’s “wise child” must travel down with the goat through centuries of previous Passovers to find it—and to discover the questions he needs to start asking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324082132
Publisher:	Norton Young Readers
Publication date:	02/25/2025
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Dara Horn is the winner of three National Jewish Book Awards and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She lives in New Jersey.

Theo Ellsworth is an artist and comics creator. He lives with his family in Missoula, Montana.

Editorial Reviews

"Inventive, wild and deeply rooted in the Jewish experience, history and mythology… A deeply timely lesson about Jewish history and resilience, and about just how special and magical Jewish tradition can be."

Kveller

"A wild ride."

Kirkus Reviews

"One Little Goat is full of sarcastic humor and earnest goodness that kids — and kids at heart — will love. And Theo Ellsworth’s hilariously busy illustrations vibrate right off the page. All who are hungry, come and eat."

The Washington Post Ron Charles

"The holiday’s profound spiritual messages are movingly articulated by the comic book’s many characters in ways that will engage both those who have never before attended a seder and those of traditional observance."

Jewish Journal

"Irreverent and moving... Intricate lined textures and wide-eyed characters evoke Mark Alan Stamaty and Edvard Munch, conveying cosmic wonder and comedic anxiety... The narrator comes to see his family’s seder, however messy and querulous, as one link in an unbroken chain of survival, celebration, and identity."

Publishers Weekly

"Like the Hag­gadah itself, the narrative and visual rich­ness of this high­ly rec­om­mend­ed, inventive graphic nov­el invites repeat­ed readings, each one per­haps dif­fer­ent from all the others."

Jewish Book Council

"At long last, here is the time-traveling goat-centric Passover adventure my people have been awaiting for thousands of years."

Lemony Snicket

"What happens when you put together an endless Seder, a talking (scape) goat, and one not-so-wise teen boy? A trip through 3000 years of Seders and a new appreciation of holiday and family… This Passover story is written with nimble tongue-in-cheek humor. Readers won’t want it to end."

School Library Journal (starred review)

2024-12-14
In this fantastical graphic novel, a boy attempts to bring his family’s never-ending Passover seder to a close.

According to Jewish law, a seder cannot end until the afikoman—a piece of matzah broken and hidden somewhere in the home—is found. So when the unnamed protagonist’s little sister throws the afikoman into a wormhole, the seder is forced to continue indefinitely. Six months in, a talking goat—a reference to a song traditionally performed at the end of the seder—arrives to help the boy track it down. The goat explains that all the seders that have ever occurred are stored under the protagonist’s house, and the afikoman is hidden in one of them. As the pair journey through time, the boy watches his great-grandmother participate in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He witnesses historic seders, such as one that took place during the Spanish Inquisition and another that occurred during the Jewish-Roman Wars. Ellsworth’s black-and-white illustrations are filled with busy crosshatched patterns, while characters often talk over one another. This chaos mirrors the surreal plot; reading the book feels like falling down a rabbit hole. Horn zips from one historical event to another without offering much context or explanation; most readers, even those versed in Jewish tradition, will likely be confused. The protagonist’s reflections on his identity and family are intriguing but similarly rushed. Characters have skin the color of the page.

A wild ride that will leave most struggling to keep up.(Graphic fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews