Benjy's Messy Room

“Chametz hunting meets sibling bonding in this cute and informative read.” -Jewish Book Council

“The book provides a useful starting point for thinking about how to approach a problem that seems overwhelming.” -Association of Jewish Libraries

Passover starts tomorrow, and Benjy’s room is a mess. His race car set, his superheroes, and his firetruck are spread across his room, along with all his other toys. He knows he needs to clean them up, especially with Passover and the breadcrumb hunt starting tonight. But it’s much more fun to have a pretend hunt with his little sister, Shira. Benjy crumbles up pieces of paper to be the crumbs. He hides one under his race car, and under his firetruck, and all around his room. They get so caught up in the game, Benjy doesn’t notice it was almost sundown. Now he’ll never finish in time! That is until he realizes that cleaning might not have to be a chore.

This story about making chores fun, and the bonds between siblings, introduces readers to bedikat hametz, a fun pre-Passover ritual in which families hunt for bread crumbs throughout the house on the night before Passover.

Author Biography

Barbara Diamond Goldin is the recipient of the Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries. She has written many award-winning books on Jewish themes, including Night Lights: A Sukkot Story, A Persian Princess, The Passover Cowboy, and Meet Me at the Well: The Girls and Women of the Bible. Barbara recently retired from her position as the director of a public library and lives in Northampton, Massachusetts. 

Rita grew up in Indonesia, where she taught herself art. She loves drawing digitally, as it gives her more freedom. If she’s not drawing, then she’s writing stories, gardening, cooking, reading or spending time with her two children, the source of her inspiration. She lives in Washington State.