Title: Let my People Go, A Brick Haggadah Companion
By Dr. Tzachi Rosman
Mosaica Press, 45 pages
Builders, rejoice! Let my People Go, A Brick Haggadah Companion from Mosaica Press, is out just in time for Pesach.
Completely illustrated with full-color photos of scenes entirely constructed from Lego/toy brick pieces, this clever concept book will certainly enhance the Seder of young readers, (and the grown-ups who love them) whether they enjoy building with colorful bricks or not.
The scenes and images are full of humor and wit, and kids will delight in trying to discern which unique pieces were used to capture the different parts of the Yetzias Mitzrayim story, and the parts of the Haggadah.
The book follows the structure of the Haggadah, and is designed to be used alongside a traditional Haggadah as one goes through the Seder. It maintains the classic Kadesh, Urchatz, Karpas, etc., script, but also makes a point of dwelling on the child-friendly parts of the Seder, such as the four sons, the four questions, and the like. It also smartly chooses to insert verses from parshas Shemos in order to fully tell the story starting from the daughter of Pharaoh discovering baby Moshe to the burning bush, the ten plagues, and the trip through the sea. Young children will appreciate having these key pieces of the tale fully fleshed out.
The lego/toy bricks work especially well for scenes like the pyramids and the slaves working on making bricks. Other details, like the hail and the lice, are a little bit more of a visual stretch, but it’s fun to see how Rosman creatively managed to make these work, too.
Occasionally, the graphic design of the book makes it a bit challenging to understand what was in the builder/author’s mind. For example, I would have liked more space devoted to the images of the four questions so that I didn’t have to squint to see what was going on in each of those photos – there is a lot of great detail in there that could have benefited from some more real estate.
But what really makes this book different from all other Haggadahs is its humor. Watching Supergirl of DC comics fame march alongside Jasmine from Disney’s Aladdin right next to Batman as they make their way through the split sea made me smile. So did noticing the spilled Lego grape juice and the broken Lego afikomen. These kinds of fun details are sure to delight many young readers as well.
