Izzy the Whiz and Passover McClean

by Yael Mermelstein, Carrie Hartman (Illustrator)

Overview

Izzy the Whiz is an amateur inventor who, right before Passover, creates a super duper machine that whirs and purrs and munches and crunches and miraculously cleans the entire house just in time for the holiday – but not without creating havoc along the way. A fun, crazy, rhyming tale a la Dr. Seuss.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781512490169
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Carrie Hartman grew up knowing she would illustrate picture books some day. Her school and local library were her favorite places to be when she was young. She graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with her degree in Illustration. Carrie’s illustration work can be seen nationally and internationally in: picture books, editorial publications, animated projects, advertising, greeting cards, and much more. Carrie finds that working on picture books is very special. Having children tell her that one of her picture books is the book they have their parents read it to them every night before bed is the biggest honor that she could hope for. Carrie teaches in the illustration department at MCAD. She freelances from her studio and is currently writing her own picture books.

Editorial Reviews

Pre-Passover cleaning gets a fun twist in this rhyming tale. Izzy, an amateur inventor, has created a mother’s ultimate dream: a house-cleaning machine, and just in time for Passover. Izzy knows that all the crumbs in his home must be removed before the holiday, and his invention will do just that. “All were blown, all were thrown into Izzy’s machine/A pre-holiday feast for Passover McClean.” McClean hits a snag, however, when the machine malfunctions right after it has inhaled the entire living room for cleaning, but before it has spit it back out, dirt free. Izzy must then use his inventor’s mind to make things right hours before the holiday begins. Kids will appreciate the easy rhyming scheme and bold pictures, and wish that they could invent their own Passover cleaning machine. Ages 3–8. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Eager to help his overworked, stressed mother during the pre-Passover spring cleaning, a little boy invents a super vacuum-type machine that does more than a clean sweep. Wearing a baseball cap and circle-shaped glasses, the round-faced, google-eyed Izzy is a whiz at creating all things science in his room, which is filled with cookie crumbs and other leftover foods. While Mom takes a nap, Izzy promises to have everything neat, clean and free of hametz (foods unacceptable during Passover) by using his "Super-McDuper Passover McClean" machine. It works like a charm in his bedroom, where everything is eaten by McClean, whirled and swirled, washed and dried and then spit out and put back in place. But cleaning the living room becomes more complicated with a McClean malfunction that first swallows everything in sight and then, with Izzy's tinkering, spits everything out upside down. "Izzy jammed on REVERSE. / And reverse did the trick! That McClean was so slick, / Turned the whole room right over and did it real quick." Subdued watercolors create nevertheless zany illustrations to accompany the Prelutsky-style rhymes, presenting a confident and seriously earnest youngster working out his experimental mishaps to achieve a sparkling success. A humorous if silly way to introduce the concept of removing any leavened foods from the home as part of pre-holiday preparation. (author's note) (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews