Frogs in the Bed: My Passover Seder Activity Book

It’s pretty much impossible to graduate from a Jewish preschool program without memorizing this silly-snarky tribute to Plague No. 2 (“One morning when Pharaoh awoke in his bed,/ there were frogs in the bed and frogs on his head”), so the premise for this activity book is promising. It certainly opens with a bang, with Koffsky (Noah’s Swim-a-Thon) offering an illustrated version of the song (created by Shirley Cohen Steinberg) that’s colorful and filled with cheekily anachronistic visual jokes: Pharaoh has a “#1 ruler” coffee mug, and the frogs use his flush toilet as a hot tub. But the seder-themed activities that follow (“try nibbling on the matzah edges like a mouse, to make funny shapes”), intended to keep children from growing restless during the proceedings, never really rise beyond the level of standard Sunday school handouts. Ages 4–7. (Jan.)