Mighty Micah

Micah loves the gragger, the noisemaker he uses at his family's Purim party. The family uses it to celebrate the defeat of Haman, a bully from biblical times who tried to destroy the Jews, and the gragger makes Micah feel mighty.

On the way home, though, the gragger goes missing. Micah worries that without it he will not be brave enough to stand up to the bullies at school, the way Queen Esther, who saved the Jews, was brave. But this gragger turns out to have power of its own. It travels from a raccoon's hands to a fish's mouth to a heron's beak, and finally ends up back on Micah's front steps.

Micah is delighted to have it back and brings it to school to show his class. Everyone gets to hear its mighty whirr, whirr, whirr, and feel powerful and safe too. The book closes with an author's note that briefly retells the story of Purim and explains how its themes of strength, courage and safety apply to children today.