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THE BOOK OF TENS by Mark Podwal

THE BOOK OF TENS

by Mark Podwal & illustrated by Mark Podwal

Pub Date: Aug. 1st, 1994
ISBN: 0-688-12994-3
Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Renowned cartoonist and artist Mark Podwal illustrates and retells stories from the Bible using the number ten as a unifying theme. In the introduction, Podwal describes how the number ten appears again and again in the Bible and how it is believed to have a special spiritual significance. The ten words that created the world; the ten wonders created on the first day; the ten brothers who sold Joseph into slavery; the ten people who went to live in heaven without having died; the ten tribes lost in exile; and the ten commandments given to Moses are only a few of the miraculous tens that Podwal has chosen to highlight. Unfortunately, his text is as dry as dust, and his illustrations, though witty and sophisticated (as readers of the New York Times may attest), will have no interest for young readers, over whose heads they will most surely fly. Not a children's book in any sense of the word, this is an intriguing variation on a biblical theme but it is sadly lacking the essential breath that would bring it fully to life. (Picture book. All ages)