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Benjy's Messy Room

Barbara Diamond Goldin author Rita Tan illustrator

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Behrman House Inc.,U.S.

Published:28th Mar '24

Should be back in stock very soon

Benjy's Messy Room cover

"Chametz hunt­ing meets sib­ling bond­ing in this cute and infor­ma­tive read." —Jewish Book Council

"The book provides a useful starting point for thinking about how to approach a problem that seems overwhelming." —Association of Jewish Libraries

Passover starts tomorrow, and Benjy's room is a mess. His race car set, his superheroes, and his firetruck are spread across his room, along with all his other toys. He knows he needs to clean them up, especially with Passover and the breadcrumb hunt starting tonight. But it's much more fun to have a pretend hunt with his little sister, Shira. Benjy crumbles up pieces of paper to be the crumbs. He hides one under his race car, and under his firetruck, and all around his room. They get so caught up in the game, Benjy doesn't notice it was almost sundown. Now he'll never finish in time! That is until he realizes that cleaning might not have to be a chore.

This story about making chores fun, and the bonds between siblings, introduces readers to bedikat hametz, a fun pre-Passover ritual in which families hunt for bread crumbs throughout the house on the night before Passover.

This sweet fam­i­ly sto­ry illus­trates the tra­di­tion­al require­ment to remove all leav­en, even crumbs, from the house the night before Passover starts. Removal is per­formed after dark by the light of a can­dle, with a spe­cif­ic prayer and the antique imple­ments of a feath­er and spoon. In this sto­ry, mid­dle child Ben­jy wants to hold the can­dle and lead the hunt. To do so, he must clean up his bed­room floor, which is cov­ered with toys. Old­er sis­ter Nao­mi taunts him, telling him he will nev­er get the chore done in time. Baby sis­ter Shi­ra cries because every­one in the house­hold is so busy prepar­ing for the hol­i­day that they’ve left her with no play­mates. Ben­jy agrees to play with her before he starts to clean. He cre­ates a mock bread­crumb hunt using paper balls.

While his baby sis­ter eager­ly wan­ders about his room find­ing them, he sings the bless­ing, which she learns from rep­e­ti­tion. As it gets dark, they use a flash­light. Their chants sum­mon Nao­mi back to the room, where she dis­cov­ers that Shi­ra knows the prayer. Not only that, she’s been pick­ing up Benjy’s toys as she’s searched for the fake bread­crumbs. Nao­mi agrees to help fin­ish clean­ing so Ben­jy can lead the hunt. The sto­ry ends with Ben­jy get­ting his wish and the lov­ing fam­i­ly cel­e­brat­ing togeth­er. The end­note explains chametz, a word not includ­ed in the sto­ry itself.

While this pic­ture book is clear­ly for Jew­ish read­ers who are famil­iar with Passover, the end­note cap­tures the uni­ver­sal themes of being over­whelmed by a big chore and get­ting into a hol­i­day mood. Chametz hunt­ing meets sib­ling bond­ing in this cute and infor­ma­tive read. —Ellen G. Cole, Jewish Book Council

When this picture book begins, Benjy’s room is too messy for tonight’s b’dikat chameitz, a pre-Passover tradition of searching for breadcrumbs explained accessibly in the text; the Hebrew term is identified in the author’s note. Younger sister Shira is looking for someone to play with her, so Benjy — though he feels he doesn’t have time since his room needs cleaning — invents a game of searching for paper balls around the room to help Shira practice for tonight. While young readers learn about b’dikat chameitz from this activity, they also have the chance to pick up on the way the game is helping to solve Benjy’s original problem.

The book provides a useful starting point for thinking about how to approach a problem that seems overwhelming, an aspect also addressed in the author’s note. A mix of full-bleed illustrations and vignettes provides variety.

Benjy’s Messy Room is recommended for classrooms and collections serving primary readers and their families. —Shoshana Flax, Association of Jewish Libraries

If only Benjy can put away all his toys,  he’ll get to lead his family’s hunt for chametz on the evening before Passover. It’s Benjy’s favorite ritual where he’ll hide small packets of bread crumbs that his family will have to find. To Benjy’s surprise, when he gets distracted playing with his younger sister, he discovers that turning the chore into fun is the perfect solution. —Jewish Telegraphic Agency

ISBN: 9781681156309

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

32 pages