When I am not sure how to start a review I look up punisher descriptions and/or other peoples reviews. Part of the publisher’s description has this mentioning how it is about freedom for the Jewish people-and their pets, and that is a good way to start my review for The Passover Pet Surprise by Ana Maria Shua.
The characters in the story are visiting family for the holiday. The children are either having their first one or are old hats. But when they decide that freedom is important to all people and pets, they realize that the family birds are in a cage, not free to fly away. And well, you can figure out the rest. Now, I enjoyed Ana Maria Shua’s story, but I never felt the children realized how serious it was to let a domesticated pet out into the wild. Their hearts were in the right place, but actions of course were not totally.
However, that is a small issue in the big picture. The overall picture is a nice story and way of telling the history and meaning behind the story of Passover. And this is all done with lovely illustrations by Angeles Ruiz. The place and people come alive on the pages with strong colors, details that fill the pages and really set the tone and allow you to see where this family is from. As the narrator and her family are visiting her aunt, uncle and cousins, I was a little curious which parent was the sibling to the aunt and uncle’s family, but again, a small piece of information. Though I was curious to learn more about the people I might have to do a second reading to see what I might have missed.
Due early March 2026 and read via an online reader copy