“Heather Has Two Mommies” Author Pens New Children’s Book of Jewish Holidays

Just in time for the Jewish New Year comes a new children’s book by Lesléa Newman, author of the classic Heather Has Two Mommies, taking us on a year-long journey through the Jewish holidays.

Here Is the World: A Year of Jewish Holidays begins with an infant girl’s naming ceremony, moves to the weekly observance of Shabbat, and then proceeds to the yearly cycle from Rosh Hashanah through Shavuot (a lesser-known holiday that deserves greater recognition, in my opinion, as it is often celebrated with cheesecake). The book ends by bringing us back to Shabbat, in many ways the fundamental Jewish observance. Jewish worship is structured around the year-long cycle of weekly Torah readings, and a book that takes us through this cycle, bracketed by Shabbat and begun by welcoming a new Jewish child into the world, feels like an act of worship in itself.

The book is far from solemn, however. Newman’s rhymes bounce us gently along, and Susan Gal’s vivid illustrations are full of energy, color, and fun. Pages at the end explain each holiday in more detail and offer activity ideas. It’s a great introduction to Jewish holidays for young children, whether your family observes them or simply knows others who do.

Here Is the World features what appears to be a family with different-sex parents. There are so many happy relatives and friends packed into the pages, however, that I recommend it as an expression of family joy no matter your family structure. Newman’s inclusion of a girl’s naming ceremony instead of a boy’s bris (circumcision) is also a nice nod to women’s growing empowerment in Jewish life. (The bris is mentioned in the end pages.)

And with lines like “Here is a yarmulke, here is a shawl/Here is the synagogue, open to all,” one senses that although LGBT families aren’t explicitly in this book, they aren’t far from Newman’s mind.

This isn’t the first Jewish-themed book from Newman; I hope it isn’t her last.

(Footnote: Newman is perhaps best known for Heather, but her more recent Donovan’s Big Day, about a boy preparing for the wedding of his two moms, is a cheerier and less issue-driven book, in my opinion.)

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