FROGS IN THE BED

Traditional Passover Seders are often lengthy and uninteresting for young children; this picture activity workbook offers a variety of art projects, games and even a comic strip to help counteract this effect.

An illustrated version of the classic “Frog Song” introduces the holiday’s theme with a sleepy pharaoh awakening to frogs in his bed, on his head and jumping everywhere in his realm. Subsequent pages follow with a surprising bounty of activities, given the slimness of the volume. There’s a Seder plate symbol-matching game, followed by the four questions in the original Hebrew, with Romanized spellings and in English translation. A comic-strip version of the magid attempts to inject a little humor into the Passover story. There’s an activity that encourages children to “munch” their matzo into different shapes and another that places the afikoman at the center of a maze activity. Suggested crafts include making Elijah’s cup and, of course, jumping frogs. Throughout, cartoon illustrations uneasily combine an ancient Exodus atmosphere with detailed instructions for each activity.

While meant to engage children before, during and after the ceremony, this pedestrian and amateurish workbook is unlikely to keep children absorbed for long.