Now for the second year, the Madison Public Library has partnered with IRIS Global Connect and the Wisconsin International Resource Consortium to bring the world to YOU through the Children’s International Story Hour!

CISH will be in Pinney Library 4-5pm on the fourth Monday of every month, September-May (except December).

This will be a time of sharing award-winning children’s literature that celebrates the diversity of arts, culture, and language across the globe. Participants will learn about global music and engage in hands-on crafts that stimulate their curiosity. Each month promises to be fun and enriching!

This event is free and designed for children ages 5-10 and their caregivers. All are welcome.

Featured Title: Everybody’s Book: The Story of the Sarajevo Haggadah

by Linda Leopold Strauss(Author), Tim Smart(Illustrator)

Country: Sarajevo

This true story begins long ago in Spain, where a bride and groom are gifted a hand-painted haggadah. It is used at many Passover seders until the Spanish Inquisition when the family escapes. The haggadah survived for centuries in different countries. Scholars declared it a treasure. To protect it from the Nazis, a curator smuggled it out of a Sarajevo museum and hid it in a village mosque. On Passover of 1995, with bombs exploding overhead, the Bosnian president brought out the book from an underground vault to show the world that it was safe. The Sarajevo Haggadah has become a symbol of people of many faiths and cultures working together.