DANCE IN THE DESERT

L’Engle’s 1969 retelling of the biblical tale of the flight into Egypt finds new life on the picture-book page.

“Once there was a night in the desert when nobody was afraid and everybody danced.” As the story begins, danger looms, and a family of three—Mary, Joseph, and a toddler-aged Jesus, though they go unnamed—seek to cross the desert in a caravan. They’re refused passage by a number of caravans, but one deigns to pick them up. One evening, as members of the caravan play different instruments, a lion appears. Unafraid, the child approaches, and the two begin to dance. Soon the lion is followed by a veritable zoo of animals, including everything from penguins and pelicans to adders and ostriches. At long last the youngster sleeps, and the dawn breaks. “The dance was over. The journey would continue.” Though abridged, L’Engle’s lilting text still features the literary embellishments of the earlier edition, as when she notes that a desert is like an ocean: “And then suddenly there is nothing, nothing but waves of sand shifting and sliding in the wind, stretching out to eternity on every side.” Le’s ethereal illustrations evoke both beauty and whimsy as beasts and birds cavort upon the sand. The result will please both parochial and secular readers. Most characters are tan- or brown-skinned.

Take a turn beneath the stars with this gently spiritual paean to the power and pleasure of dancing without fear.