Thousands of years ago in the city of Ur, a boy named Abraham questions his people’s worship of idols and wonders if another force in nature could be the one true God. Impressed by the beauty of the moon, the brightness and strength of the sun, thunder and lightning’s energy and the sereneness of a multi-colored rainbow following a rain storm, Abraham contemplates and even tries to pray to each of these. But he soon realizes that the one true God is everywhere, in everything and is the great power that rules the universe. While Abraham’s story in Genesis is told from an adult perspective, Jules bases her clearly and effortlessly told legend on several interpretations in the Midrash suggesting how the boy Abraham developed a belief in one unseen God. Ugliano’s scenes of an ancient biblical community and one child’s connection to the natural surrounding world in soft pastel/crayon tones couple the abstract concept of a universal spiritual entity with an introduction to the father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. A promising presentation for early childhood religious instruction. (Picture book. 4-7)
