Francine Medoff

Cute story about a country mouse who follows wheat from the field to its completion as Shmurah Matzah for Passover, that is matzah that is watched from its harvesting through its being baked in no more than 18 minutes so that it is "kosher for Pesach". When the mouse sees the label on a box of matzah saying that the matzah was "watched," he assumes that he was the watcher.
(Shmurah means watched in Hebrew. Very observant Jews want to make sure that the matzah used to during the Passover Seder show more does not come in contact with water from the time it is harvested until it is made so that it is completely unleavened.)
The paper is beige, close to the color of matzah and the text and pictures are brown. The background of the cover looks like matzah. "About Matzah" appears at the front of the book. show less

This is such a cute book! It's the story of a mouse who saw the process of how wheat turns into matzah, leaving him proud to be the individual that did the watching. The story is sweet, the drawings are beautiful, and the information is interesting. I especially like the introduction "about matzah" for those who know nothing about the unleavened bread of the Jewish festival of Passover. I think this would be a fun book to save and share with the youngest seder guests every Passover.

See my review for the original version. This version, with a different illustrator, is bigger and shinier and colorful. (The original was brown on beige paper.)
The picture of the city is different and there was only one woman (in the matzah factory) in the original, while this version has perhaps more women than men. (I haven't counted them). I'm keeping the original and donating this.