A useful tool for Sunday school teachers and parents introducing new concepts.
A picture book focuses on making a traditional prayer more accessible to young readers.
Although the Lord’s Prayer is familiar to Christians (described by Abraham as “the perfect way to talk to God” in an endnote), the vocabulary and ideas may be challenging to young Sunday schoolers. On each page of this book, both the traditional King James Version of the prayer and Abraham’s interpretation appear. Abraham simplifies the words and the concepts for each line of the prayer. Swapping an archaic word like hallowed with the simpler special and replacing trespasses with mistakes, the author successfully boils down the essence of the prayer in a way that youngsters can understand without diluting the meaning. A few lines are less effective, such as the introduction of angels in the depiction of heaven, which may be a theological stretch. Still, teachers and parents will find this a helpful rendition. West’s cartoon images focus on diversity, showing mainly children and one crossing guard in many different hues, one of whom uses a rainbow cane. (The guard is depicted as having vitiligo.) God is pictured as a golden figure, sometimes with rays that resemble sunbeams surrounding his head, which may suggest to the youngest readers that the divine is associated with the sun. The figure’s lack of facial features makes sense, keeping God abstract. But this element may be off-putting to some kids, especially since the prayer’s language has been made so concrete.
A useful tool for Sunday school teachers and parents introducing new concepts.Pub Date: July 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781664299955
Page Count: 26
Publisher: WestBowPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit.
The bubble-helmeted feline explains what rockets do and the role they have played in sending people (and animals) into space.
Addressing a somewhat younger audience than in previous outings (Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space, 2013, etc.), Astro Cat dispenses with all but a light shower of “factoroids” to describe how rockets work. A highly selective “History of Space Travel” follows—beginning with a crew of fruit flies sent aloft in 1947, later the dog Laika (her dismal fate left unmentioned), and the human Yuri Gagarin. Then it’s on to Apollo 11 in 1969; the space shuttles Discovery, Columbia, and Challenger (the fates of the latter two likewise elided); the promise of NASA’s next-gen Orion and the Space Launch System; and finally vague closing references to other rockets in the works for local tourism and, eventually, interstellar travel. In the illustrations the spacesuited professor, joined by a mouse and cat in similar dress, do little except float in space and point at things. Still, the art has a stylish retro look, and portraits of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford diversify an otherwise all-white, all-male astronaut corps posing heroically or riding blocky, geometric spacecraft across starry reaches.
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-55-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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The true meaning of the holiday season shines here.
Kids teach a valuable lesson about community spirit.
A city block is ablaze with red and green lights for Christmas; one house glows blue and white for Hanukkah. This is where Isaac, a Jewish boy, lives, across the street from best friend Teresa, excitedly preparing for Christmas. They love lighting up their homes in holiday colors. After an antisemitic bigot smashes a window in Isaac’s house, Isaac relights the menorah the next night, knowing if his family doesn’t, it means hiding their Jewishness, which doesn’t “feel right.” Artistic Teresa supports Isaac by drawing a menorah, inscribed to her friend, and placing the picture in her window. What occurs subsequently is a remarkable demonstration of community solidarity for Isaac and his family from everyone, including the media. Galvanized into defiant action against hate, thousands of townspeople display menorahs in windows in residences and public buildings. This quiet, uplifting tale is inspired by an incident that occurred in Billings, Montana, in 1993. Readers will feel heartened at children’s power to influence others to stand up for justice and defeat vile prejudice. The colorful illustrations, rendered digitally with brushes of the artist’s devising, resemble scratch art. Isaac and Teresa are White, and there is some racial diversity among the townspeople; one child is depicted in a wheelchair. An author’s note provides information about the actual event.
The true meaning of the holiday season shines here. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64614-087-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
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