In the style of Where’s Waldo?, a modern-day boy named Mike is camouflaged within busy illustrations of well-known Bible stories featuring dozens of tiny and similarly clad characters for sharp-eyed young readers to peruse. Each spread includes a large illustration filled with buildings, people and minuscule details, a brief paragraph summarizing the particular story, related questions directing the reader to find additional people or items in the illustration and a short Bible verse. The volume includes 14 stories from the Old Testament and 14 from the New, with each section followed by a more difficult quiz page with single items that can be found somewhere in any of the illustrations in that section. The busy visual depictions of the stories are chock-full of characters and tiny details, including some items that were not around in biblical times, such as helium balloons, a modern-style traffic sign and roller skates. Purists may object to a contemporary boy (and irrelevant objects) inserted into biblical scenes, but many children who seek the mental challenge of this format will find this fascinating. (Picture book/religion. 6-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-310-71759-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2008
The most interesting feature of this retelling of a story about a saint martyred in A.D. 270 is the art, a meticulous re- creation of the medium of its subject's period. Using thousands of tiny, rectangular pieces resembling tiles, Sabuda replicates the effect of Roman mosaics. His simple designs and harmonious, gently muted colors are pleasing, and he achieves surprising subtleties of expression, considering the intractability of the medium. Actually, the illustrations work even better from a slight distance (as with a group), so that the demarcations between the tiny pieces are less predominant. The technique, which tends to congeal the action, makes relatively undramatic illustrations; still, it's a fascinating experiment that brings the ancient world to life by paying tribute to its art rather than by picturing it in a modern style. The straightforward narrative centers on Valentine as a physician whose ointment restores the sight of a jailer's blind daughter, long the saint's friend. It's implied that the long-awaited cure takes place at the moment of his offstage death; the story ends with the joy of the child's renewed vision. An unusual and attractive rendition. Historical note. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 30, 1992
ISBN: 0-689-31762-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1992
This book of seasonal prayers, inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of Brother Sun,” and also indebted to Gaelic scholar Alexander Carmichel’s work, can be summed up by a portion of the prayer for November: “Contained in every/season’s end:/the blessing to begin again.” Springtime’s “Sing praise” gives way to summer’s “Rejoice!” and then to harvest time’s “Give Thanks” before winter’s “Be Blest” appears in the encircled prayer that faces each month’s watercolor illustration. The realistic paintings reflect the annual cycle, becoming almost iconographic in the evidence in each of the gifts of the season. These are “God’s good gifts” that in January, for example, are the seeds shaken from dead plants and weeds and the leaf buds on barren branches. The puzzle of the cycle of life springing from death moves on many levels; also appearing in January are predator (fox) and prey (deer). The simple yet sturdy spirituality informing this book will assure its place in both individual and institutional collections that have room for religious titles. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-80546-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
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