November PJ Library Family of the Month

Ron and Lorie Hirson are parents of Noah, age 2-and-a-half, and live in San Francisco. They have been receiving books from The PJ Library for over a year. With Noah sleeping soundly, we caught up with Ron and Lorie one evening to get their thoughts on The PJ Library program, the power of reading to children and some of their family's favorite books: Ron: "The PJ Library is a phenomenal program. To reach out to families through programs like Chai Baby and give this great gift of Jewish books...we didn't even sign up for it. A friend did it for us. It's not that easy to find Jewish children's books. They just aren't that accessible. So, having the PJ books at home has been great. It's allowed us the chance to share our religion and culture with Noah." Lorie: "The books have become even more important as Noah has gotten older. He is now in Jewish preschool and he can make a connection between what he learns at school to the PJ books. We had Jewish toys around the house but the PJ books were our first Jewish children's books. We can see now that he is drawing links between the books and his world. His grandmother was in Israel recently and we got out the Let's Visit Israel book to help explain where she is. One of his favorite books is It's Hanukkah and he says 'Happy Birthday' when he reads it because he sees the candles. He loves It's Challah Time because he is obsessed with challah when they celebrate Shabbat at preschool. At Rosh Hashana, we always read the apples and honey book." Ron: "And I love reading Bible Heroes I Can Be with him about the walls of Jericho tumbling down. Noah loves that one." Ron and Lorie feel such gratitude for The PJ Library program that they were happy to give back and share their PJ Library story. We thank them and wish them many more years of happy reading. The Jewish Community Federation is pleased to offer The PJ Library program to families like the Hirsons. Created by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and thanks to generous funding from the Jim Joseph Foundation and the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, The PJ Library offers books to many more families in our area. Please visit www.pjlibrary.org to sign-up today, or e-mail Vivien Braly at VivienB@sfjcf.org with any questions!