The Midnight Mitzvah
written by: Ruth Horowitz with illustrations by: Jenny Meilhove
barefoot Books October 1, 2024
32 pages
Review by: E. Broderick
The best way for me to review children’s books, particularly picture books, is to read them to a child. So when I heard Ruth Horowitz had a new picture book coming out, I set about recruiting a child to participate in reading The Midnight Mitzvah with me. Luckily, most children enjoy being read to and this was not a difficult position to fill. Especially since the illustrations by Jenny Meilhove were particularly inviting.
Full disclosure – we read this on a computer so the full board book experience is not here, but I did read it out loud and the aforementioned toddler was very happy to snuggle up and listen. They even tried to touch the screen the same way they would turn the pages of a physical book. As this was 3-year-old, the full plot, which involves an important lesson about how charity is best performed in secret, may have flown over their head. It was, however, grasped by the older siblings who kept pretending they were not listening to the book. They commented on how this preserves the recipients dignity, with the oldest even mentioning they learned about this in the laws of tzedakah -charity – laid out by Moses Maimonides. They shared their thoughts on the topic and many text to self connections were made.
I mostly enjoyed how the featured chipmunk is a stand in for a respected Rabbi in a famous old Jewish tale. There’s nothing like involving the local wild life to make a story feel fresh.
The text is not heavy handed, and there is a tense moment in the forest at night before we learn that all is well. This provides just enough emotional tension to keep little listeners engaged.
But back to the three-year-old. This particular child was very excited to point out and name all the different animals as well as the moon which is drawn with a variety of facial expressions. When we finished The Midnight Mitzvah, there was a request asked for more books to be read. Which is a sure sign of success – the audience asked for an encore! How fortunate for us that Horowitz has more books for us to read together.
Note: BookishlyJewish received a free e-arc from the author after we expressed interest in one.