Deborah Uchill Miller

Sweet, cute, charming, silly rhyming story gives a good overview of the seder. Works for all ages, from young preschoolers on up.

I like the mathematical problem and its solutions: If you have only nine chairs and 18 people, then how do you equitably distribute chairs and people? Well, you look at the factors of 18 and find a factor that is less than or equal to nine. Clearly, one chair works! The book then explains how to use the necessary periscopes, fishing lines and more to perform the various sections of the seder up to the meal.

For the meal itself, another factor of 18 is used to divide people among chairs. It reminds me of the stories about the difference between heaven and hell, in which people around a table can only eat if they cooperate with each other.

The pictures in the new version are in color and newly copyrighted for 1995; the originals were in black and white. Also the book itself is made better; the original edition is now falling apart.… (mere)

Deborah Uchill Miller's Modi'in motel, an idol tale for Chanukah combines two places and time periods. On one hand an adult is reading, making up and playing out a story with children at Chanukah in a modern room. On the other hand the children and the readers are transferred back in the days of the Maccabean revolt near Jerusalem. There, in order to support the Jewish soldiers' fight against the Greek army, they use their wits to disarm and humiliate them. By setting up a "motel" with the sole purpose of making the Greeks uncomfortable, making their horses drunk and via other mischievous deeds they accomplish their goal. While the children have their fun as well.

The pencil drawings by Karen Ostrove are hilarious. I particularly enjoyed looking through each image carefully to find a hidden message. Almost every page has a little note integrated into it, providing additional inside jokes. Because of this I would estimate that this books is best suited for children between the age of 7 and 9. For those of you who are wondering about the title and did not know, the first page explains that the Maccabees came from the village of Modi'in and, yes, some idol smashing happens as well.… (mere)