The Bar Mitzvah Boys

by Myron Uhlberg, Carolyn Arcabascio (Illustrator)

Overview

A coming of age story that includes three generations, with love.

Grandpa was never bar mitzvahed; it was wartime, and life was difficult. It's been a regret his whole life. Many years later, it's his grandson's time to go through the Jewish ritual of coming of age. The father suggests that they be bar mitzvahed together. They study together, recite together, and celebrate together.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807505694
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	10/01/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Myron Uhlberg is the award-wining and critically acclaimed author of several children's books, including Dad, Jackie, and Me; A Storm Called Katrina; and The Sound of All Things.

Carolyn Arcabascio is an accomplished artist who illustrates for books, editorial, and animation. She enjoys painting faces, color, and nature illustration, and works traditionally as well as digitally. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and two high-maintenance terriers.

Editorial Reviews

"The connection between a grandfather and his grandson is clear and heartwarming."—Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews

From the Publisher

"The connection between a grandfather and his grandson is clear and heartwarming."—Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews

Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews

2019-07-24
A grandfather and his grandson become b'nai mitzvah together.

This picture book opens with an old man who has "only one regret." An 82-year-old Holocaust survivor, he and his entire Polish village were sent to a concentration camp during World War II, where he was too busy fighting for survival to "begin the traditional yearlong training for his bar mitzvah, the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony that celebrates a boy becoming a man when he is thirteen." The first few pages briefly describe that history as the soft illustrations show the old man getting into a car with his family and driving toward a warmly lit synagogue. The text explains the deep bond between grandfather and grandson and that the boy's father "suggested that his father and his son be bar mitzvahed together." Age and youth study together, learn together, and celebrate together, "combining remembrance of the past and the unfolding of the future, recognition of the unbroken chain." While clearly heartfelt and sweet, this story does not work as a picture book or read-aloud. Bogged down by lengthy, complicated sentences, no readily discernible underlying structure, and a flat plot, the story is neither entertaining nor particularly educational and is likely to confuse young audiences, who are several years from their own bar or bat mitzvahs.

A loving but unsuccessful portrait. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews