The Always Prayer Shawl

“Some things change. And some things don’t.”

That simple truth, whispered in a synagogue, echoes throughout this deeply felt picture book. Adam, a young Jewish boy in czarist Russia, must flee his ancestral home at the outbreak of the revolution. Before he sets sail for a new land, his grandfather gives him a prayer shawl that was handed to him by his own grandfather, who was also named Adam. And so the life of Adam and his prayer shawl unfolds from time past to time present, when Adam has a grandson of his own. Some things change and some things don’t. Sheldon Oberman’s picture book about the strength of tradition and the passing of generations is given powerful expression in Ted Lewin’s atmospheric illustrations.