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By Sherry Ashworth; Read by Lily Sacofsky

Sophie didn’t want to go to school. Sophie’s big brother, Danny, knew she didn’t want to go to school because Sophie was walking very, very slowly.

‘What’s wrong, Sophie?’ he said. ‘It’s nearly Purim – you should be happy.’

Sophie gave a big sigh. ‘I’m upset about Alana, the new girl in our class. No one’s talking to her because she’s new and some people are being mean about her. It’s not fair.’

‘Why don’t you tell the teacher?’ Danny suggested.

‘My teacher’s always busy,’ said Sophie.

Danny and Sophie came to a park bench. Danny told Sophie to sit down with him.

‘Sophie,’ he said, ‘do you remember the story of Queen Esther at Purim?’

‘Tell it to me,’ Sophie said.

‘Queen Esther was married to the King of Persia, and he was always busy too. One day Esther’s cousin, whose name was Mordecai, came and told Esther some very bad news. You see, Esther and Mordecai were Jewish, like us.Ìý And Mordecai had an enemy in the court – his name was Haman.’

‘Haman!’ exclaimed Sophie. ‘Whenever the rabbi reads out the name of Haman in the synagogue we all boo and make as much noise as we can.’

‘That’s right, Sophie. Now, Haman didn’t like Mordecai because Mordecai wouldn’t bow down to him. So Haman asked the King if he could destroy all the Jews. And the King said Haman could do what he liked, because Haman was the King’s favourite. So Mordecai asked Esther to speak to the King about it.

At first, Esther was nervous of speaking to her husband. She didn’t want to disturb him. What if he turned her away? What if he was angry? But she thought about it and decided to do what Mordecai had asked her. She made her way to the royal chamber.

There was the King, sitting on his throne, holding his golden sceptre. Taking a deep, deep breath, Esther approached him. As soon as the King saw Esther he could see she was unhappy. He asked her what was wrong and he said she could have whatever she wanted to make her happy. So Esther asked the King to come to a royal feast the next night and to invite Haman too. Haman was very pleased when he was told about the royal feast, because he thought the King and Esther really liked him.

The next night, Esther, the King and Haman all went to the feast. There was a wonderful display of cakes and wine and all different fruits. But Esther did not eat a thing or drink a drop. The King noticed that his wife was not eating or drinking and asked her what was wrong. Again, he said he would do anything to make her happy. Esther took another deep, deep breath.

‘Do you remember, Your Majesty, that you agreed to destroy all the Jews?’

The King looked a bit puzzled. Esther could see he might have forgotten.

‘Your Majesty,’ she said again. ‘The Jews are MY people, and I am Jewish. Please save my people, and save me too!’

The King stood up. He was very, very angry. ‘Who dared to give the order to destroy all the Jews?’ he thundered.

Esther spoke loud and clear. ‘It was Haman, your favourite. He wants to destroy all the Jews!’

The King turned to look at Haman, who was trembling with fright.Ìý‘Haman,’ the King said. ‘I will not destroy the Jews. I will destroy you instead!’

‘And now,’ Danny said, ‘we must go to school.’

At the end of the day, Danny met Sophie at the school gates. She looked very, very happy and ran right up to her brother.

‘I thought about Queen Esther,’ she said, ‘and I decided to be like her and I told the teacher that some people were being mean to Alana, the new girl. And the teacher spoke to them and now things are better. Alana’s really nice and I’ve asked her to come and visit us on Purim so she can see me dressed up as Queen Esther!’

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