Book Description
for On All Other Nights by Chris Baron, Joshua S. Levy, and Naomi Milliner
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
A diverse collection of stories celebrates the traditions, foods, and religious practices that accompany the Jewish holiday of Passover. Most of the 14 stories in this collection take place during the Passover seder, with each story corresponding to one of the steps in the Haggadah, the book containing the Exodus story, prayers, and songs of Passover. While most of the stories’ protagonists seem to be white Ashkenazi, Ruth Behar remembers the differences between her Ashkenazi and Cuban grandparents’ seders, and Veera Hiranandani writes of a biracial Indian American girl raised by one Hindu and one Jewish parent. A nonbinary protagonist hopes to come out during their family’s seder, while a neurodivergent child just can’t stomach her grandmother’s gefilte fish. Other protagonists are dealing with grief, guilt, and growing up. The stories vary in genre and format, but themes of family, memory, tradition, and identity abound. Each story is preceded by a short introduction to the seder step and four reflection questions; the volume concludes with several recipes. The steps may be the same for all, but each family’s seder is unique.
CCBC Choices 2025. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin – Madison, 2025. Used with permission.