Benjy's Messy Room

Barbara Diamond Goldin is the recipient of the Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries. She has written many award-winning books on Jewish themes, including Night Lights: A Sukkot Story, A Persian Princess, The Passover Cowboy, and Meet Me at the Well: The Girls and Women of the Bible. Barbara recently retired from her position as the director of a public library and lives in Northampton, Massachusetts. Rita grew up in Indonesia, where she taught herself art. She loves drawing digitally, as it gives her more freedom. If she’s not drawing, then she’s writing stories, gardening, cooking, reading or spending time with her two children, the source of her inspiration. She lives in Washington State.

This sweet fam­i­ly sto­ry illus­trates the tra­di­tion­al require­ment to remove all leav­en, even crumbs, from the house the night before Passover starts. Removal is per­formed after dark by the light of a can­dle, with a spe­cif­ic prayer and the antique imple­ments of a feath­er and spoon. In this sto­ry, mid­dle child Ben­jy wants to hold the can­dle and lead the hunt. To do so, he must clean up his bed­room floor, which is cov­ered with toys. Old­er sis­ter Nao­mi taunts him, telling him he will nev­er get the chore done in time. Baby sis­ter Shi­ra cries because every­one in the house­hold is so busy prepar­ing for the hol­i­day that they’ve left her with no play­mates. Ben­jy agrees to play with her before he starts to clean. He cre­ates a mock bread­crumb hunt using paper balls.While his baby sis­ter eager­ly wan­ders about his room find­ing them, he sings the bless­ing, which she learns from rep­e­ti­tion. As it gets dark, they use a flash­light. Their chants sum­mon Nao­mi back to the room, where she dis­cov­ers that Shi­ra knows the prayer. Not only that, she’s been pick­ing up Benjy’s toys as she’s searched for the fake bread­crumbs. Nao­mi agrees to help fin­ish clean­ing so Ben­jy can lead the hunt. The sto­ry ends with Ben­jy get­ting his wish and the lov­ing fam­i­ly cel­e­brat­ing togeth­er. The end­note explains chametz, a word not includ­ed in the sto­ry itself.While this pic­ture book is clear­ly for Jew­ish read­ers who are famil­iar with Passover, the end­note cap­tures the uni­ver­sal themes of being over­whelmed by a big chore and get­ting into a hol­i­day mood. Chametz hunt­ing meets sib­ling bond­ing in this cute and infor­ma­tive read. —Ellen G. Cole, Jewish Book CouncilWhen this picture book begins, Benjy’s room is too messy for tonight’s b’dikat chameitz, a pre-Passover tradition of searching for breadcrumbs explained accessibly in the text; the Hebrew term is identified in the author’s note. Younger sister Shira is looking for someone to play with her, so Benjy — though he feels he doesn’t have time since his room needs cleaning — invents a game of searching for paper balls around the room to help Shira practice for tonight. While young readers learn about b’dikat chameitz from this activity, they also have the chance to pick up on the way the game is helping to solve Benjy’s original problem.The book provides a useful starting point for thinking about how to approach a problem that seems overwhelming, an aspect also addressed in the author’s note. A mix of full-bleed illustrations and vignettes provides variety.Benjy’s Messy Room is recommended for classrooms and collections serving primary readers and their families. —Shoshana Flax, Association of Jewish LibrariesIf only Benjy can put away all his toys,  he’ll get to lead his family’s hunt for chametz on the evening before Passover. It’s Benjy’s favorite ritual where he’ll hide small packets of bread crumbs that his family will have to find. To Benjy’s surprise, when he gets distracted playing with his younger sister, he discovers that turning the chore into fun is the perfect solution. —Jewish Telegraphic Agency