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Fun The. Whole Year Long
This calendar is everything you'll need to mark the date.
5763 - 2002/2003
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CALENDAR
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor
My Very Own Jewish Calendar: 2002-2003
by Judyth Groner and Madeline Wikler
(Kar-Ben; $7.95).
One of the most delicious things about a
new Jewish year is getting this annual calen-
dar. It's that much fun.
In case you've never seen it, My Very Own
Jewish Calendar includes Jewish and secular
dates, along with Jewish holidays and
American holidays.
It also is filled with kid-friendly recipes,
great little bits of Jewish history and just
altogether cool stuff. (Did you know that an
asteroid has been named in honor of Dr.
Jacob Trombka, an observant Jew and physi-
cist who worked for NASA's Laboratory for
Extraterrestrial Physics?)
This calendar continues through
December 2003 and also includes a handy
chart of candlelighting times, to cover the
entire Jewish year, for major cities in the
United States.
The Story of Me
by Brea Weisman (Perfect
Memory Publications; $40).
The Story of Me is not the average baby
book, and thank goodness. As any parent
knows, completing some kind of baby book
for each child simply has to be done.
With the first baby, it's fairly easy.
Invariably, "Watching Baby Grow" books
include pages where parents are encouraged
to record everything. So you take a picture
of the child's each and every movement;
record every present you received when she
was born and for her first birthday; and
write down not only the date of her first
step, but the exact minute, the exact
nanosecond. All are dutifully included in
The Book.
When the second and third and maybe
fourth child come along, the heart is still
willing; but more often than not, a parent
finds herself with hardly enough time to
breathe, much less fill out a baby book with
a million questions.
The other issue: holidays. Most baby
books are not written for Jewish parents,
which means you're likely to find a page
about "Baby's First Christmas" and virtually
,none bearing mention of a single Jewish cel-
ebration.
The Story of Me is bright and sunny, with
just the right amount of space for recording
information. The questions are fun, too;
parents are invited to write about popular
movies, the cost of a gallon of milk and
national headlines on the day baby was
born.
There are numerous pages for the first
year, then an appealing page for every year
afterward, through age 18. The questions,
as the child grows, are just the kinds of
things kids will love to answer. In fifth
grade, for example, they are asked to name
their best friends and talk about what they
like to do after school.
The Story of Me further includes a "My
First Chanukah" page — along with one for
Christmas, Easter and Kwanzaa, but the
whole book is in binder form so you can
easily use what you need and toss what you
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