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THE AGELESS STORY by Lauren Ford

THE AGELESS STORY

By

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Doubtless the juvenile of the year, if one can judge by the storm of comment and adulation and criticism which it is arousing. There are two schools of thought. One school rejoices in the linking of the gospel story of the childhood of Jesus with familiar concepts for the child who knows his New England landscape, and members of this group explain the inconsistencies on the ground that throughout the ages artists had combined the familiar settings and costumes with the traditional, as closer to the folk spirit.... The other school of thought argues that since halos and recurrent conventional interpretations of angels, etc., are accepted, and the incorporation of familiar objects for the Connecticut child will not mean much to the Chicago child, the excuses of the other group limp and halt. Everyone agrees that discussion is healthy. That it is a beautiful (if self-consciously keyed to a past generation in its coated paper and overly prettified decorations) book. The inclusion of the antiphons is a decorative note which won't mean much to children. But the book will be talked about -- and will be bought. And the fundamentalists who jibe at the modernizing-up-to-a-generation-or-so-ago in the pictures will have no fault to find with the use of the Bible text from the Gospel according to St. Luke.