The Little Goat

 Passover is one of the most celebrated of the Jewish holidays. It is a holiday observed in homes around the world. There are many different Haggadot, offering a variety of ways to put together a seder.   Families build on generational customs or create their own traditions to commemorate the spring holiday, when the Israelites left Egypt and started their journey to the promised land.  

In Dara Horn’s new graphic novel, One Little Goat, she brings her memories of family seders to teen readers. They will definitely be able to relate to the teenage angst of being caught at the dinner table for many hours with elderly relatives and younger cousins and siblings. 

Using themes and references to the Passover seder, Horn creates a witty, funny story about what can happen if you never find the Afikoman, the dessert without which a seder cannot end.

Bringing to life the goat from Chad Gadya, the song sung at the end of the seder about a father buying a goat for two zuzim, our protagonist is able to be the hero and find the missing matzah after six months of being stuck at the Seder.

The goat takes the “wise child” on a journey meeting characters from the many seders throughout history. They travel back in time and see his parents as children at their family seders, in the USSR, 1981, as refuseniks. Then back in time past the Holocaust and seder in the Warsaw Ghetto.  Back to the 1300s and creation of the Bird’s Head Haggadah.

They visited Rabbi Don Isaac Abarbanel, Nachman of Bratslav, and even Dona Gracia Nasi in Constantinople in 1556, during the Inquisition.  

Then the Goat takes the child who now is becoming wiser further back in time to meet Rav and Shmuel in the third century, known as great Amoriam, great Jewish scholars.  The Rabbis, Eliezer, Joshua, Elazar ben Azaria, Akiva and Tarfon make an appearance before the Goat takes the child to the night his ancestors left Egypt. 

This is a very clever way to tell the Passover story and explain its importance to older children.

It is a very timely story showing how throughout history Jews have been strong and resilient continuing their traditions even in the face of adversity.  Bringing home the message how special and magical maintaining our Jewish connections can be.