Next Year in the White House: Barack Obama’s First Presidential Seder

Christmas and Easter celebrations have been White House mainstays for more than a century, but the first presidential Passover Seder didn’t occur until 2009. Michelson’s reportorial text, accompanied by Lewis’s realist watercolor vignettes, offer readers the backstory. After a hard year on the campaign trail, three aides to then-senator Barack Obama are “feeling homesick... hungry... tired.” Throwing together a meager but heartfelt seder in a hotel basement, they are joined unexpectedly by the candidate himself, who is inspired by the Haggadah’s story and declares, “Next year in the White House!” That hope is fulfilled a year later, when President Obama presides over a beautifully appointed White House seder, his daughters hunt for the afikomen, and Michelle Obama’s observation captures the profound significance of the moment: “It is a miracle that the descendants of two enslaved peoples are now free to share a meal together in the White House, at the invitation of America’s first Black president.” Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Extensive back matter concludes. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)