A Feather, a Pebble, a Shell by Miri Leshem-Pelly; Minneapolis: Kar-Ben Publishing; © 2024; ISBN 9798765-607749; 32 pages, $18.99.
SAN DIEGO – In this picture book for children between the ages of 3 and 8, a young girl who is a future conservationist travels up and down Israel finding treasures that she can hold in her hands for moments before restoring them to their rightful place in nature.
The book serves not only as a lure for travel in Israel, but also can motivate children to explore neighborhoods in their own countries – so varied and interesting are the items that one might find on a nature hike.
The girl finds a basalt pebble in the Dan River; a porcupine needle at Mount Meron; a violet bittersweet clam shell at Dor Beach; Mediterranean snail shells in the Sharon Nature Reserve; the feather of a hoopoe, Israel’s national bird, at HaYarkon Park; a European olive in Sataf; and a stalactite in the Twin Caves of the Judaean Hills.
Her adventure continues when she finds a salt crystal at the Dead Sea; the feather of a griffon vulture at Ein Avdat; a pod of an acacia tree at Barak Gorge; and a piece of dead hood coral in the Red Sea.
“Whenever I hold something small in my hand – a feather, a pebble, a shell – I leave it where it belongs for you to find,” the book concludes with an environmentalist message.
Leshem-Pelly wrote and illustrated this book, which successfully teaches about Israel’s geography and about conservation.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com