Picture Books & Chapter Books • Judaica
Bunny Romero’s White House Adventure:
The Whole Megillah!
WRITTEN BY MARGIE BLUMBERG
ILLUSTRATED BY RENÉE ANDRIANI
This is a sweet-as-a-cookie rhyming story—fun to read aloud—with charming illustrations about a dream that comes true! This fast-paced picture book also features an inclusive message from President Abraham Lincoln about the importance of immigrants to America.
BUY THE BOOK
$15.95 (Softcover)
$19.95 (Hardcover)
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• Pages: 58
• Age Range: 4 - 8 years
• Pub Dates:
Softcover: 8/13/2018
Hardcover: 2/14/2023
• Size: 8.5 x 8.5 inches
• ISBNs:
978-0-9994463-2-4 (Softcover)
979-8-9871401-0-9 (Hardcover) -
Purim, Thanksgiving, making dreams come true, immigration, friends, courage, humor, Spanish, Yiddish
MORE FUN INSIDE! An illustrated Spanish, Yiddish, and Hebrew glossary • A dream diary • A bissel of history that includes Abraham Lincoln, Emma Lazarus, and the Statue of Liberty! • A hamantashen recipe for Purim
When Jewish immigrant Bunny Romero learns that her second-grade class will be visiting the White House the day before Thanksgiving, she jumps for joy. Now she is sure that her dream will come true: to eat her favorite cookies—her Mexican nana’s hamantashen—right there in the White House kitchen. Then she'll really feel at
home in America! But what happens when Bunny discovers that the kitchen is not part of the tour? Find out in this delightful rhyming tale, lightly sprinkled with Spanish, Yiddish, and Hebrew, about a day that Bunny—and everyone else at the White House, including the first female president—will always remember!
Reviews
"A spirit of fun pervades the text and the pictures. . . . celebration is the dominant mood. . . . Funny [and] warm . . .”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
"There’s lots of welcome diversity in the imagined White House and Bunny’s class, and the intersection of Bunny’s identities is treated casually, as is her pride in her heritage in this peppy, mostly rhyming tale."
—ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH LIBRARIES REVIEWS, SHOSHANA FLAX, THE HORN BOOK, INC, BOSTON, MA, FEB/MARCH 2019
"Margie Blumberg’s educational children’s storybook, Bunny Romero's White House Adventure: The Whole Megillah! is a marvelous way to share American history with young readers from the vantage point of a new citizen, Bunny. I loved seeing how Blumberg stresses the contributions immigrants have made at all stages in the history of this country and smiled when I saw Renee Andriani’s gorgeous illustrations of a White House filled with people of all nationalities."
—READERS' FAVORITE, 5 STARS, JACK MAGNUS
Margie Blumberg, eating her tuna fish sandwich in the White House kitchen, 1995. (Photo by Jim Catler)
The Story Behind the Book
“You Gotta Have a Dream!”
By Margie Blumberg
It all began on Sunday, September 10, 1995 . . .
For a long time, my dream had been to eat my favorite sandwich, tuna fish, in the White House kitchen. As that lovely song “Happy Talk” (from South Pacific) says, “You gotta have a dream.” And this was mine. I told people about it whenever the subject of dreams, the White House, or tuna fish came up. One day, my sister was eating dinner in a restaurant, and seated at the next table was the White House chef. When she told him about my dream, he said he would be delighted to give us a private tour of the White House—and that it would include the kitchen! Now, after I had heard this incredible news, I was quite certain that I was not going to be sitting in the kitchen for a leisurely lunch—though that would have been terrific!—so I prepared a one-inch square sandwich. Good thing, too, because our tour of the kitchen was not long, so I had just a moment to pop the sandwich into my mouth. Jim snapped a photo to capture this “historic” moment, so I have proof that, indeed, my dream came true. This happened on September 10, 1995. From there, a story took form, and it eventually became Bunny Romero’s White House Adventure: The Whole Megillah!, featuring Purim, Thanksgiving, our first woman president, and hamantaschen—my favorite cookie!
