Happy Passover to all those who celebrate! Hope you like matzah, and stuff made from matzah meal, ‘cause that’s what you’re getting for the next several days! When this holiday is over, your G.I. tract will be VERY angry with you. That said, matzah meal pancakes are actually pretty good, when done right.

Hey, speaking of matzah, guess what? I wrote a Passover story for Yoto’s 5-Minute Spring Holiday Stories collection, which is out NOW!

The story I wrote is called “Mort the Misinformed Morsel of Matzah”! In it, Mort – who is a morsel of matzah, as you may have guessed, given the story’s title – wishes that he was bread. He’s even built a high-tech device which will transform him into bread. Will he use the device? Will he have a change of heart? Download the story or purchase the story card to find out!

All of the stories in this collection are short audio dramas for kids. Writing the script for “Mort” was like writing a radio play, and I even wrote the sound effects into the script, which was lots of fun.

And guess what? You can see Mort poking out of the basket the skunk is holding on the poster art for this collection!

Oh, one more thing: “Mort, the Misinformed Morsel of Matzah” was performed by a friend of mine, Eli Schiff!

Here’s Yoto’s official description of the 5-Minute Spring Holiday Stories collection:

Spring into the season with five heartwarming tales of joy, renewal, and celebration, told by your friends at Yoto.

Experience Lunar New Year through Kaylin’s eyes, learn what it’s like to be a morsel of matzah who dreams of being bread, deliver Easter eggs with the Easter Skunk, try to fast for the first time during Ramadan with Saleem, and help the elephants and the bees prepare for Holi in these 5 stories celebrating the coming of Spring!

Tracks include:

• Kaylin and the Noisy Lion Dance
• First Time Fast Time
• Holi, Naturally
• The Easter Skunk
• Mort the Misinformed Morsel of Matzah

Read by Triya Leong, Donya Alizadeh; Nikhil Saboo; Billy Bob Thompson; and Eli Schiff

For more info on The 5-Minute Spring Holiday Stories collection, CLICK HERE.

BTW, I also wrote a Hanukkah story called “The Dreidel Thief” for Yoto’s 5-Minute Holiday Stories collection, which came out back in November of 2023. Now, that was a collection of winter holiday stories, even though that’s not really reflected in the collection’s title. This new story, “Mort the Misinformed Morsel of Matzah,” was written for the 5-Minute Spring Holiday Stories collection. The operative word there is “Spring.” I’m just trying to point out that the two collections have similar but slightly different titles, just so that nobody gets them mixed up.

And you can find out more about “The Dreidel Thief” (and how to listen to it) via THIS BLOG POST.

Last but definitely not least, I just wanted to thank Joe Vitale for hiring me to write the “Dreidel Thief” and “Mort” stories! (Joe was the head writer for both the winter and spring 5-Minute Holiday Stories collections.)