Ginny Hall

Everything you need to put on a play! The pages are perforated so they can be removed and copies of the scripts (for teachers, with directions, and for students, with just text) can be made. How to create the scenery, what props are needed, who the characters are and what they should wear, templates for an invitation to the performance and the program for the play, masks to cut out and color, recipes for potato latkes ("A Chaunkah Treat") and "Lukshen Kugel - A Sabbath Treat", a detailed page on how to make and use a dreidel (cut out and fold the cube with Hebrew letters and push a pencil through it), a page of scrambled sentences (with the answers at the back of the book) and another asking you to make words from the letters in four words, and, finally, a Teacher's Page listing 12 important days that children can write reports on (holidays plus Bar Mitzvah), a selected bibliography (I'm not familiar with any of these books about Jewish holidays), and a short list of famous Jewish people: "Marc Chagall, Albert Sabin, Levi Strauss, George Gershwin, Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk, Joseph Pulitzer, and The Marx Brothers." BUT, why a pig mask?! The characters are frum: men and women cover their heads.
In this version of The Crowded House story, Rubin is told by the local rabbi to bring in chickens; a rooster; his cow and pig (maybe it's a pet?); and his brother-in-law's family. Although they do whatever the rabbi tells them to do, they also question whether or not he's made a mistake. Finally the rabbi tells Rubin to send out all the animals and people. Rubin is happy ("My house is the most wonderful, cozy house in the village! our beloved rabbi is a very, very wise man!") and, when Hannah complains about noise, he replies, "Ah, Hannah, this is heaven! Things could ALWAYS be worse!").… (mer)