Chil­dren’s

Rab­bi Rock­et­pow­er in Who Hogged the Hal­lah?: A Shab­bat Shabang

Rab­bi Susan Abram­son and Aaron Dvorkin; Ariel DiO­rio, illus.
  • Review
By – January 16, 2012
Rab­bi Beat­rice Ann Men­sch is back in the sec­ond book in the Rab­bi Rock­et­pow­er series. She is a moth­er, a rab­bi, and with an Oy Vey” and an Up, up and away,” Rab­bi B.A. Men­sch trans­forms into Rab­bi Rock­et­pow­er: able to wipe out evil wher­ev­er she finds it. And evil abounds in Who Hogged the Hal­lah? Rab­bi Men­sch leads a very busy life. When she’s not tak­ing her son Aaron to school, soc­cer, or clar­inet prac­tice, she’s prepar­ing din­ner or run­ning back to the tem­ple for a meet­ing. Dad pitch­es in when he can, but the week­days are hec­tic. Aaron looks for­ward to Shab­bat, to rest and to enjoy his mom’s excel­lent hal­lah. But this Shab­bat, dis­as­ter strikes. While his mom is lead­ing the ser­vice, Aaron dis­cov­ers that the Tray­fi­na­tors have land­ed and are hid­ing ham and bacon in the Oneg desserts. Can he stop them before Shab­bat is ruined? This is a job for Rab­bi Rock­et­pow­er. Aaron, Dad, and their alien space cat, Purr, join the Rab­bi as she works. Can they save the Oneg on time? As with her first book, authors Susan Abram­son and her son Aaron have cre­at­ed an excit­ing adven­ture book for young read­ers. Also includ­ed is a hal­lah recipe, a glos­sary of the many reli­gious terms sprin­kled through­out the sto­ry and even a Tray­fi­na­tor glos­sary, for Tra­fi­na­tors speak a backwards/​piglatiny lan­guage all their own. A fun time will be had by all read­ers. For ages 7 – 10.

Mar­cia Ber­neger is a retired teacher who lives with her hus­band and three crazy dogs. She taught both first and sec­ond grade, as well as spe­cial edu­ca­tion. She cur­rent­ly teach­es Torah school, in addi­tion to her vol­un­teer work in class­rooms, libraries, and with var­i­ous fundrais­ers. She lives in San Diego.

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