At Ma’ayanot’s Annual Book Day, the creative genius of Tammie Rapps and Nina Taub, Ma’ayanot’s Co-Directors of Interdisciplinary Education, gave students an opportunity to “get lost in a book.” Students’ interest was piqued in the weeks leading up to Book Day by the posters around school of faculty, with faces hidden, enacting iconic book covers, giving students the opportunity to guess which faculty member was posing as each cover.

On Book Day itself, each grade entered a transformed Student Center. Ten books, comprising the Ma’ayanot summer reading choices, were arrayed across five stations. Each station was thoughtfully decorated to provide a sensory experience of the book, with artifacts ranging from red London phone booths to New York taxi cabs, Greek pottery to Japanese paper cranes, from suitcases to easels to sea shells. Each station had a faculty or student salesperson, who identified the book’s genre and related it to students’ prior knowledge and interests. For example, Dara Horn’s “The World to Come” references Chagall, art and Jewish history. John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” contains allusions to Parashat Bereishit. At the station for Jane Austen’s “Emma,” students were invited to make hypothetical shidduchim between literary characters. A nosh table featuring gummy “bookworms” and other literary treats also helped students get into the reading spirit. Sophomore Izzy Kaplan appreciated that “Book Day was so informative about new books—I know which one I am going to choose!” Sophomore Gabriella Davidovitch “loved the visual presentation, which makes what I’m going to read more realistic and gives it context.” Sophomores Hadar Gilmore, Adiella Ginsburg, Sophia Landau and Yehudis Muller all considered Book Day “an awesome opportunity to grow our love of reading!”

Book Day is sponsored in memory of Jacob Grun, z”l, grandfather to five Ma’ayanot students and alumnae from the Hirschkorn and Kramer families. Ma’ayanot faculty also look forward to this exciting and educational day. Each year, the Book Day team reassesses and redesigns programming to maximize students’ engagement and learning. This is the Ma’ayanot way.