If you want a taste of Shab­bat joy, filled with fun and laugh­ter, then you want to spend it with Leslie Kimmelman’s delight­ful fic­tion­al friends, Sam, Char­lie, Sam Too, and gig­gling baby Leo. The two sets of sib­lings and their fam­i­lies come togeth­er for deli­cious Shab­bat meals, songs, games, and cel­e­bra­tion. They dis­cuss a young child’s ver­sion of Jew­ish phi­los­o­phy and they tell bib­li­cal sto­ries, enjoy­ing their times togeth­er. They draw and cre­ate a muse­um for their won­der­ful art projects. Then, one day, they decide it would be fun to fur­ther shake up their Shab­bat obser­vance. Dif­fer­ent foods begin to make an appear­ance — falafel, dates, and bimue­los — but food alone, no mat­ter how exot­ic, isn’t enough of a shake­up. So, donat­ing to tzedakah to make the world a bet­ter place — as well giv­ing seri­ous thought to where the col­lect­ed mon­ey should go — is added to the mix. The chil­dren demon­strate through dis­cus­sion, play, and action the many ways that Shab­bat can be observed creatively.

This is a book that might inspire young read­ers to come up with ideas of their own to enliv­en their own Shab­bat experiences. 

Read­ers will look for­ward to read­ing about Sam, Char­lie, and their crew as they con­tin­ue to have won­der­ful adven­tures while learn­ing about and liv­ing Jew­ish lives.