Review: Rah! Rah! Mujadara

 Rah! Rah! Mujadara

by Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh, illustrated by Claudine Gévr

Kar-Ben Publishing

Category: Picture Books

Reviewer: Rachel Fremmer

Buy at Bookshop.org

Rah! Rah! Mujadara is a board book celebration of the diverse foods - and people - of Israel. The book portrays children of all colors and religions (as indicated by their headwear) enjoying everything from the iconic Ashkenazi bagel to falafel, mujadara, and more. Unfortunately, the rhyming is off (gush and smush do not rhyme; nor do tell and Israel) and strain to scan (shake-a, shake-a/shak-SHUK-a).

A useful introduction to the variety of foods enjoyed by Israelis.

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Reviewer Rachel J. Fremmer is a lawyer-turned-elementary-school librarian. She is a native New Yorker and lives there with her husband two daughters, ages 15 and 13, who are rapidly outgrowing her area of book expertise. She loves baking and doing crossword puzzles.