Cater­pil­lar Yom Kip­pur is part of Jen­nifer Tzivia MacLeod’s Jew­ish Nature series, which takes a close look at the world around us and relates it to Jew­ish life as it unfolds cal­en­dar day by cal­en­dar day. This time we fol­low a fuzzy cater­pil­lar as he moves through time, slow­ly chang­ing as we all do; his life is no more sta­t­ic than that of the young read­er look­ing at his pic­tures and think­ing about his jour­ney. The cater­pil­lar, too, grows, changes and evolves.

Food is an inte­gral part of the caterpillar’s dai­ly rou­tine, just as it is for all of us. But there are oth­er times in our lives, such as on Yom Kip­pur, when we put food away and start think­ing some deep­er thoughts. At those spe­cial times, we remem­ber that we are not alone, even when we do not see Hashem, and we think about ways that we can improve and make our­selves even bet­ter that we already are. Change does­n’t have to hap­pen all at once. A cater­pil­lar takes time to become a beau­ti­ful butterfly.

These sweet, gen­tle mus­ings are accom­pa­nied by love­ly col­or pho­tographs and include instruc­tions for fold­ing an origa­mi but­ter­fly which can be hung in the sukkah after Yom Kippur.

This book is charm­ing, cre­ative, thought-pro­vok­ing, and fun to share with chil­dren ages 3 to 6.