You got your attacking bugs, your Red Sea split, your evil Pharoah going down. The whole Exodus thing is quite a story, compelling enough that we tell it year after year.

But the youngest among us, maybe they like a little more punch in their Pesach. Maybe in the days leading up to the seder they want a different kind of Passover story, just to mix it up. And just maybe there’s a grandparent or relative who’s heard the telling of Exodus every year for decades and might like to volunteer to keep the little ones quiet during the seder by reading them a story — y’know, so the other adults can concentrate.

And, as we all know from the Haggadah, a good story has as much to do with its telling as it does with the plot (there’s always somebody who can turn Exodus into a big yawn).

Read the rest of the Yenta’s book review “Beyond the Haggadah: Passover titles for the little ones,” from this week’s j.