A simple, easily understood, and welcome book about children’s relationships with God.
A young child is inspired by art and faith to draw pictures of God.
After visiting an art museum and viewing the works of Picasso, Emma is moved to draw and create like the great artist. She meditates on what to draw and hears whispers from her mind and heart to draw God. Unfortunately, when Emma shares her first drawing—a vibrant yellow ball of light—with Peter the next day at school, he tells her that her drawing is simply the sun. Emma is disheartened but tries again. However, her next attempts (of a warm and toasty brown loaf like her mother bakes and a throbbing red heart symbolizing love) are also dismissed as bread and a Valentine—not God. Emma learns that she doesn’t need the approval of her friends and realizes that her drawings are truly representations of God to her. By the end of the book, all of the other children are drawing their own pictures of God, and all of them are different. De Wit’s illustrations well match the text and story: simple line drawings that have an abstract quality that mirrors the art theme. God is not defined or attributed to any particular religion in this book, so it will have appeal to readers of many faiths. It closes with suggestions for faith-based activities for children that connect with Emma’s story.
A simple, easily understood, and welcome book about children’s relationships with God. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64060-187-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paraclete Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
A religious picture book with a delightful conceit—taking words from the Scriptures (referenced in the back) and constructing a prose poem around them—that becomes tedious. Impressionistic pictures follow Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem: ``I am the way they walk—these, people, who pass up hill and down going to the town to be counted. I am the vine fruitful with branches growing entwined by the side of the road.'' The formula is always the same, a sentence per page, neither telling a story nor achieving a poetic effect. The word which stands for Jesus is always printed in a different color from the rest of the text, tying into the illustrations. These are obviously related to Joseph and Mary's trip to Bethlehem, but they might as well be generic Bible scenes somewhat romanticized: In one, a man in a monk's habit kisses a woman who may or may not be Mary, while the trees behind them swoon. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-8028-5075-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Catrow (illustrator of Kathryn Lasky's She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!, 1995) provides a pictorially updated interpretation of the journey to the grandparents' house made famous by Child's song. Instead of the sleigh, the family tools off in a minivan from which the baby soon escapes into the chaos of the Thanksgiving Day parade. She gets bumped off a horse (``As over the ground we go''), lands in a tuba, gets blatted out into the hands of an organ grinder's ape, and attaches herself to a giant runaway alligator balloon, parachuting down to the grandparents' just as her family rolls in. It is a madcap pilgrimage, and Catrow's illustrations are a whirl of incident and amusing detail, but the deliberate contrast between old-fashioned lyrics and contemporary scenes never really takes hold, making it more confusing than funny. Preschoolers will find the pictures hard to read—the baby is difficult to find—and her misadventures will alarm more literal-minded toddlers. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8050-3852-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
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