Ella's Trip to Israel

Adorable story. My granddaughter Ella loves it!

Such a cute book!! Great pictures and story.

Pretty good book about the trip, through the eyes of a child. I think kids will like it, but as an adult who reads to kids, I wish it were both more fun and that there had been more Hebrew words/education sprinkled throughout - feels like a missed opportunity to teach some basic Hebrew.

My 2 year old daughter and I LOVE this book!

Great Book!

]Ella hits all the main Israeli hot spots on her tour of Israel, this time with her stuffed toy monkey in tow. The Good Stuff: -Reptition of the phrase `no problem'-'Eyn Ba'ayah' as Kofi the monkey encounters all manner of Israeli messes from Dead sea mud to tahini spills. -Cute ending - The sweet, soft illustraions have lovely and cute details. The Not-so-good Stuff: -Lack of specificity. Ella looks at tall buildings-which building? She encounters a kibbutz- which one? This was a missed opportunity. The illustrations could easily have added these details to give the scenery more content and substance. Rating: 4 of 5 Ann Koffsky Author, illustrator of [...]

This is a really cute book both for girls and boys. The book tells a story about the little girl, Ella, who travels with her atuffed animal monkey and family to Israel. In Israel, Ella visits many of the historical sites and even takes her monkey for a swim in the dead sea where the monkey gets muddy. Kids enjoy both learning about the monkey and the funny journey it takes as well as learning about interesting Israeli sites. I gave this book four rather than five stars because although I found the story and pictures enjoyable, there is nothing special about either of them, as in "Joseph Had an Overcoat," which makes both adults and children want to read the story multiple times. I do, though, highly recommend this book.

The story was cute, but an opportunity was missed to represent the diversity of the Jewish people. The characters all seemed to be the same shade of pale, except for the scene where Ella and her family cover themselves in mud. My son received this book through PJ Library, and this is a book we will not be keeping (and will donate elsewhere).