ONE LITTLE GOAT

In this fantastical graphic novel, a boy attempts to bring his family’s never-ending Passover seder to a close.

According to Jewish law, a seder cannot end until the afikoman—a piece of matzah broken and hidden somewhere in the home—is found. So when the unnamed protagonist’s little sister throws the afikoman into a wormhole, the seder is forced to continue indefinitely. Six months in, a talking goat—a reference to a song traditionally performed at the end of the seder—arrives to help the boy track it down. The goat explains that all the seders that have ever occurred are stored under the protagonist’s house, and the afikoman is hidden in one of them. As the pair journey through time, the boy watches his great-grandmother participate in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He witnesses historic seders, such as one that took place during the Spanish Inquisition and another that occurred during the Jewish-Roman Wars. Ellsworth’s black-and-white illustrations are filled with busy crosshatched patterns, while characters often talk over one another. This chaos mirrors the surreal plot; reading the book feels like falling down a rabbit hole. Horn zips from one historical event to another without offering much context or explanation; most readers, even those versed in Jewish tradition, will likely be confused. The protagonist’s reflections on his identity and family are intriguing but similarly rushed. Characters have skin the color of the page.

A wild ride that will leave most struggling to keep up.