Karen Rostoger-Gruber, "The Family (and Frog! ) Haggadah" (Behrman House, 2017)

I talked with Karen Rostoger-Gruber and her sidekick, Maria (Karen is a ventriloquist) on her career and writing process and celebrated her Passover hagaddah (prayer book) with an amphibian twist: The Family (and Frog!) Haggadah (Behrman House, 2017).

Take a traditional Haggadah text, and add vibrant and historical artworks, engaging activities, and compelling thought questions and activities to it. Then add a hopping, wise-cracking frog to its pages, and you'll get the Family [and Frog!] Haggadah. Frog has lots to comment on, and much to do throughout the seder. He ll say the four questions, take a bath in the salt water, run from the ten plagues, pop up from behind the pages, demand more grape juice, (followed by spilling said grape juice all over the page), and generally make the whole seder more fun for everyone. But even though frog is the star of this Haggadah, (just ask him, he'll tell you so) its underlying text and content is itself wonderfully compelling, with clear instructions, fun game suggestions, checklists, transliterations, and everything else one might need to create a traditional (but not too long!-Frog) and enjoyable seder experience.

Mel Rosenberg is a professor of microbiology (Tel Aviv University, emeritus) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is also the founder of Ourboox, a web platform that allows anyone to create and share awesome flipbooks.

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