THE HUNDREDTH NAME

With measured prose Oppenheim (I Love You, Bunny Rabbit, p. 230, etc.) gives this brief story a reverent tone; a strong sense of place established in the text and pictures makes it vivid. Salah worries at his beloved camel Qadiim's air of sadness until he thinks of a way to help; having heard it said that mankind knows only 99 of God's 100 names, Salah goes out into the night to pray that the last one be revealed--to Qadiim alone. The next morning, the camel's head is high, in its eyes a look (so Salah fancies) of wisdom. Hays applies acrylics lightly over gessoed linen; his pale scenes seem lit from within, their slightly indistinct figures standing or kneeling in dignified postures. Author and illustrator expertly evoke the rhythms of rural life along the Nile, but Salah's love and concern for his companion are universal. A moving, original tale.