Yoto
Mort the Misinformed Morsel of Matzah!
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.)
Who’s Ready For Some “Potato Pancake” News?
Happy Holidays, everyone! Of course, one of those holidays is Hanukkah. As I type this, we’re smack-dab in the middle of Hanukkah. Well, not exactly the middle. Somewhat past the middle. But not quite the end. It’s eight nights long in total, and tonight is night six. So Hanukkah is still chugging along like a festive frolicking freight train, and that means that this blog post is still thematically relevant…for the next two days. Perhaps I should’ve posted this a few days ago. Oh, well. Better late than never, I guess?
All of the above is a very awkward prelude to this: I wrote a Hanukkah-themed graphic novel for kids called The Day I Became a Potato Pancake, which was illustrated by the super-talented Beilin Xu. It’s out now from Behrman House. The book has been getting mentioned – and reviewed – in a few different publications recently. So I thought I’d mention some of ’em.
Here’s what Publisher’s Weekly said about The Day I Became a Potato Pancake: “This speculative, character-focused graphic novel highlights aspects of Jewish identity and culture through multiple lenses to craft a goofy yet nuanced read.”
Read the full Publishers Weekly review HERE.
PW also included the book on its list of Jewish holiday books for children, which you can check out HERE.
The Day I Became a Potato Pancake was included in Booklist’s Fall Youth Preview for 2024, which you can see RIGHT OVER HERE.
It was mentioned in THIS ARTICLE from Book Riot titled “5 Awesome Jewish Children’s Books About Hanukkah.”
And it was mentioned in THIS ARTICLE from The Jewish Telegraphic Agency on new children’s books for Hanukkah.
Here are some other reviews of the book:
THIS is one from The Texas Jewish Post.
And HERE is one from The Jewish Book Council.
THIS is a review of the book from The Reporter, a publication of the Jewish Federation of Greater Binghamton.
And HERE is one from The Sydney Taylor Shmooze blog.
That just about does it for my press roundup for The Day I Became a Potato Pancake. However…
If you’d like to find out about some of the other Hanukkah-themed comic book stories I’ve written, you can click HERE.
And if you like reading humor pieces, I wrote THIS LIST of Hanukkah-themed horror movie titles (all of which I made up).
Lastly, HERE is a blog post where I talk about a Hanukkah-themed audio script I wrote for Yoto’s 5-Minute Holiday Stories collection (which came out in November of 2023). In that same blog post, I talk about two Christmas-themed children’s books I’ve penned.
I Wrote One of the Stories In Yoto’s 5-Minute Holiday Stories Collection!
Happy Holidays! Hey, speaking of holidays, guess what? I wrote a Hanukkah story for Yoto’s 5-Minute Holiday Stories collection, which is out NOW!
The story I wrote is called “The Dreidel Thief”! In it, Allison plays detective as she tries to find out who took her family’s dreidel. Will she solve this mystery? Download the story or purchase the story card to find out!
Here’s Yoto’s official description of the 5-Minute Holiday Stories collection:
Marvel at the magic of the holiday season in these five stories about winter celebrations: Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s.
Experience the magic of the season with our heartwarming collection of winter holiday stories: help twins Gautam and Trevir choose the perfect Diwali gift for their Dadima, join Detective Allison as she hunts for the thief who took her family’s dreidel, find a last-minute Christmas tree on Christmas Eve with Bif the Bear, go on a Kwanzaa-themed scavenger hunt with Tia and Tyreke, and help Bella the New Year’s Eve ball countdown to the New Year!,,These stories are guaranteed to fill your heart with the spirit of the winter holidays.
Written by Joe Vitale, Taeryn Booker, Arie Kaplan, and Sanjeev Sirpal
But wait, there’s more…
I have also written two Christmas-themed children’s books, both of which came out earlier this year. The first one is The Gremlins Little Golden Book, which was illustrated by Meg Dunn. It’s out now from Penguin Random House. As you may have guessed, The Gremlins LGB is an adaptation of the classic 1984 film Gremlins.
And the second one is The Nightmare Before Christmas Paper Models Book, which is out now from Thunder Bay Press. This book is filled with behind-the-scenes anecdotes and trivia about the making of the classic 1993 movie The Nightmare Before Christmas.
