Maddie the Mitzvah Clown

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National Jewish Book Award Finalist

Maddie, a young mouse, loses her shyness when she realizes that she can make others laugh.She sees the joy on Grandma’s friends’ faces as Giggles the Mitzvah Clown performs at their senior home. He includes Maddie as he makes balloon hats, entertains with juggling, songs, and dances, and, most importantly, talks with everyone. She asks: “Can shy mice become mitzvah clowns?” and Giggles assures her that anyone can learn. Initially mostly gray-toned, the paintings with collage elements include more and more bits of color as Giggles introduces Maddie to the tools of the trade (balloons, rainbow wig, red nose), changing to full color as she takes on her new role. She dons a red wig, pink tutu, and purple, squeaking shoes, names herself “Squeakers,” and begins her visits. Her confidence buoyed by her activities in disguise, she finally makes the biggest change of all: she speaks as Maddie herself to Grandma’s friends. What seems like a didactic story improves along the way as the engaging illustrations involve readers and Maddie’s transformation takes place. In real life, young people (usually teens) can learn to be mitzvah clowns and bring joy to others in this special way. This activity and other ways to do good deeds are described in “A Note to Families,” but no specific references are provided. A different way to give back to the community (and help oneself), this cheery outing should not be confined to its Jewish context.
–Kirkus Reviews

The sadness of shyness and the seriousness of mitzvot mix in a charming picture book. This warm animal tale introduces children to the kindness of visiting the aged…The ending is happiness all around: for Grandma and friends, for the Mitzvah Clown who tutored Maddie and mostly for Maddie who finds inner strength, self-confidence and the will to do good in the world. The illustrations are as happy, energetic and bouncy as the characters they portray. The story opens in grey tones when Maddie is shy, then explodes into riotous color when she works toward her goal and conquers shyness through disguise.
–Association of Jewish Libraries

Clowns and Purim often go together, but becoming a mitzvah clown is a new thing. Some national Jewish youth-oriented organizations are encouraging teens to clown around (in costume) at adult senior homes and children s hospitals instead of engaging in typical mitzvah-themed activities such as visiting soup kitchens. They say that entertaining others in this way also helps shy teens become more comfortable in social situations in general. This picture book expands on that idea through the story of Maddie, a shy mouse who loses her inhibitions after learning the art of clowning when she performs the mitzvah of bikur cholim (visiting the sick) at a senior convalescent home.
–The Jewish Journal

‘Maddie figures out a way to overcome her shyness and help others, too, in this engaging story with delightful illustrations and a sweet message.’
–Barbara Diamond Goldin, author of The Passover Cowboy, Cakes and Miracles: A Purim Tale, and The World’s birthday: A Rosh Hashanah Story

‘Maddie the Mitzvah Clown is a delightful story with endearing illustrations… not only will children respond to the charm of the story and artwork, but they will see that reaching out as one reaches in can lead to self-confidence and loving acts of kindness.’
–Margery Cuyler, author of The Purim Chicken

This is the sweet sto­ry — writ­ten by award-win­ning chil­dren’s author and humorist, Karen Ros­tok­er-Gru­ber — of Mad­die, a very shy young mouse, too shy to raise her hand in school or to ask the wait­er for any­thing in a restau­rant. She is not even able to talk to her Grand­ma’s friends when she vis­its Grand­ma at her senior home, as bad­ly as she wish­es to do so. She is just too shy!

One day, dur­ing a vis­it to Grand­ma, she is enthralled by a Mitz­vah Clown named Gig­gles who makes bal­loon hats for the res­i­dents, sings, jug­gles, dances, and asks Mad­die if she would like a bal­loon hat. He also offers Mad­die a rain­bow wig and a big red nose. Mad­die stares at her­self in the mir­ror, but doesn’t rec­og­nize her­self. She loves the way she looks and hap­pi­ly smiles at her image.

Mad­die imag­ines her­self being able to enter­tain Grand­ma’s friends as Gig­gles does. Gig­gles encour­ages her to be a Mitz­vah Clown, too. He assures her that even shy mice can be suc­cess­ful. Mad­die learns to put on clown make­up, sing, dance, jug­gle, and talk to peo­ple in senior homes. The last thing to do is to pick out the clown name that is right for her. As she paces around, she hears her shoes squeak­ing. She excit­ed­ly decides to be Squeak­ers the Mitz­vah Clown. Squeak­ers accom­pa­nies Gig­gles and oth­er clowns on vis­its to senior homes and hos­pi­tals and hap­pi­ly enter­tains many res­i­dents, becom­ing less shy with every vis­it. Even­tu­al­ly, she accom­plish­es the bravest thing of all, talk­ing to Grand­ma’s friends as Mad­die with­out any cos­tume and enjoy­ing the rela­tion­ships. The book exudes love as the read­er feels Mad­die gain con­fi­dence and strength­en her sense of self.

The sto­ry is fol­lowed by a note explain­ing what a mitz­vah is and what a Mitz­vah Clown does. It gives read­ers some sug­ges­tions for per­form­ing mitzvot of their own. The book is per­fect for indi­vid­ual read­ing but would also be excel­lent for school units relat­ing to mitzvot, Purim, grand­par­ents, and aging, and would be use­ful for encour­ag­ing shy chil­dren to gain con­fi­dence. It makes an excel­lent read-aloud.

The illus­tra­tions are as endear­ing as is the sto­ry. The illus­tra­tor begins with grays, adding bits of col­or grad­u­al­ly as Mad­die begins to gain con­fi­dence. By the time Mad­die is ful­ly con­fi­dent, the illus­tra­tions are mul­ti­col­ored and filled with hap­py-look­ing mice.

High­ly rec­om­mend­ed for ages 3 to 7.
–Shelly Feit, Jewish Book Council

I’m all about the female empowerment, but I am PARTICULARLY into that empowerment when it involves girls finding their strength and voice through humor. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when this little number from Apples & Honey Press rolled across my desk one day. Maddie suffers from shyness but discovers that by becoming a clown at her Grandma’s senior center she’s able to become another person entirely. I think Kirkus said it best when they wrote, “A different way to give back to the community (and help oneself), this cheery outing should not be confined to its Jewish context.”
—School Library Journal

Maddie, a young mouse, loses her shyness when she realizes that she can make others laugh.

She sees the joy on Grandma’s friends’ faces as Giggles the Mitzvah Clown performs at their senior home. He includes Maddie as he makes balloon hats, entertains with juggling, songs, and dances, and, most importantly, talks with everyone. She asks: “Can shy mice become mitzvah clowns?” and Giggles assures her that anyone can learn. Initially mostly gray-toned, the paintings with collage elements include more and more bits of color as Giggles introduces Maddie to the tools of the trade (balloons, rainbow wig, red nose), changing to full color as she takes on her new role. She dons a red wig, pink tutu, and purple, squeaking shoes, names herself “Squeakers,” and begins her visits. Her confidence buoyed by her activities in disguise, she finally makes the biggest change of all: she speaks as Maddie herself to Grandma’s friends. What seems like a didactic story improves along the way as the engaging illustrations involve readers and Maddie’s transformation takes place. In real life, young people (usually teens) can learn to be mitzvah clowns and bring joy to others in this special way. This activity and other ways to do good deeds are described in “A Note to Families,” but no specific references are provided.

Describing a different way to give back to the community (and help oneself), this cheery outing should not be confined to its Jewish context. (Picture book. 5-7)
—Kirkus

Why I Like This Book: I absolutely love both the story and art portrayed in this book and recommend it highly for children of any religion. Maddie has a universal problem and finds an absolutely clever and inspiring way to over come her character flaw. She is a believable and engaging character who many children will be able to identify with. While this satisfying and brightly-illustrated story nods to the Jewish faith in that Maddie does a mitzvah (good deed done as a religious duty), the plot boils down to a child wanting to overcome her shyness and make her Grandmother and friends laugh.

It is no surprise to me that PJ Library has recently commissioned 20,000 of this wonderful book to be shared with Jewish families across the U.S. It’s an absolutely wonderful book and everyone should take the time to read it, Jewish or not!
—Literally Lynne Marie

Karen Rostoker-Gruber is not only one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, she’s also one of the nicest. Karen has been publishing award-winning children’s books since 2003. It’s been my special pleasure to team up with her to form the Book Meshuggenahs, which you’ll find more about in the interview below along with some perfect picks for Hanukkah, including her Maddie the Mitzvah Clown and Farmer Kobi’s Hanukkah Match.
—Click to read the whole interview at The Kids Are All Write