picture book Archives | Page 39 of 40 | Little Book, Big Story

August 9, 2013 / 0 Comments

The Story of Esther

Genocide. Execution. Arranged marriage. With themes like these, I can understand why there are few children’s version of the story of Esther on the market. And yet, it features a girl rich in courage and true beauty, a man whose life is a perfect illustration of the proverb “Pride comes before a fall,” and a God who, though unnamed in the story, orchestrates his people’s salvation in a lovely, symmetrical way. By dodging the darker themes, we sometimes miss the pulsing light running right through the heart of the story.

Eric Kimmel’s telling handles both aspects of the story gracefully. He manages to provide a thorough version that is (in the most important parts) faithful to the Bible, without burdening the story with unnecessary detail. There is a sense of motion to the narrative, perhaps due to Jill Weber’s illustrations: the characters are so expressive and animated that the story whisks along at the clip maintained by the Biblical book.

The characters are among my favorite in the Bible: Esther, the reluctant queen; Mordecai, a man faithful and full of integrity; Artaxerxes, a volatile king often portrayed as foolish, and perhaps rightfully so; and Haman, the perfect villain with a fitting end. I am so drawn to this story that I read any version I can get my hands on, and I can safely say that Kimmel’s is my favorite.

The Story of Esther: A Purim Tale
Eric A. Kimmel, Jill Weber (2011)

July 12, 2013 / 0 Comments

The Moses Basket

Within the grand narrative of the Bible, there are thousands of smaller narratives—some of them so small that they are told only by a well-chosen handful of verses. These stories serve their purpose and advance the greater story, and yet I sometimes wish we could hover over these verses and let them expand, for behind them are characters compelling and bold, who are known for one action but who must have lived lives characterized by such action for them to bear fruit at the moment most needed.

I am content with the boundaries of Scripture, and thank God for choosing wisely as He tells His story—but I sometimes wonder. I wonder about those Hebrew midwives (Exodus 1:15-21). I wonder about Moses’s mother (Exodus 2:1-10), this woman who set her son adrift, trusting his life to the Lord rather than see him murdered by the Egyptians. And apparently, Jenny Koralek wonders about her, too, because she built the narrative of The Moses Basket around Moses’s mother and his sister Miriam, giving us a deeper look at who they might have been.

Of course, in doing so, she adds to the story, and yet she does it in a way that seems consistent with Scripture. She obviously did her homework, and when I went back and reread the passages concerning Miriam, I was pleasantly surprised to find how well Koralek’s interpretation held up. Add to that the illustrations of Pauline Baynes (best known for her work in The Chronicles of Narnia), and you have a top-notch telling of a beloved story.

The Moses Basket
Jenny Koralek, Pauline Baynes (2003)

June 28, 2013 / 0 Comments

How to be a Baby, by Me the Big Sister

Certain authors are going to find their names liberally sprinkled throughout this blog. I should tell you up front that Sally Lloyd-Jones will be one of them.

Like that cool aunt who doesn’t pat heads, pinch cheeks or pull kids onto her lap but just sits on the floor and listens to them, Lloyd-Jones speaks right to children—not at, around or down to them. Also, she works with the most original illustrators and magic happens. It just does.

You probably know about Sally Lloyd-Jones from her classic, The Jesus Storybook Bible. You probably don’t know about her from her How to Be . . . books, of which there are, fortunately, three: How to Be a Baby, by Me the Big Sister; How to Get a Job, by Me the Boss and How to Get Married, by Me the Bride. I was hard-pressed to pick a favorite, but I finally settled on this one because it was the one we met first, and because it makes a great gift for a new big sister. And, as you know, we’ve been in the market for those lately.

How to Be a Baby (By Me, the Big Sister) | Little Book, Big Story

How to Be a Baby features one of the best narrators of my recent acquaintance (Flavia de Luce being another): a little girl, unnamed, who has handily written a guide for her younger brother full of helpful advice like,

“When you’re a baby, it’s not good
because the wind can blow you over.
When you’re a baby, people eat your ice cream for you,
because ice cream isn’t appropriate for babies.

And you’re not allowed to TOUCH ANYTHING.”

She is quirky and endearing and speaks like an honest-to-goodness child (as opposed to an adult trying to sound like a child, which is another thing entirely). Sue Heap’s illustrations bring the whole thing to life with texture and color and drawings that look deceptively simple and perfect.

Sally Lloyd-Jones | Little Book, Big Story

These books make great gifts for children or adults, so if you know a big sister, a bride-to-be or an unemployed friend who really needs a laugh, look no further than the work of Sally Lloyd-Jones.

How to Be a Baby, By Me the Big Sister
Sally Lloyd-Jones, Sue Heap (2011)

May 17, 2013 / 0 Comments

The Light of the World

At first, The Light of the World reads like a Christmas story. There are angels and shepherds, wise men and livestock, because every book about Jesus’s life on earth must begin with the Incarnation. But after that, Jesus emerges as more than an important baby: he is the Light of the world, a light that softens the eyes of the hopeful and glitters in the bitter eyes of the skeptics.

Katherine Paterson’s narrative incorporates Jesus’s own words from Scripture and tells of his life through parables, deeds and merciful healings. You might recognize Paterson’s name, as she’s the Newbery-winning author of Bridge to Terebinthia and Jacob Have I Loved. She uses her gifts well here, and rises to the challenge of faithfully rendering a complex story in the direct, clean sentences that children love.

The Light of the World | Little Book, Big Story

Jesus himself is depicted only sparingly throughout the illustrations, a choice that feels both deliberate and fitting, but through words and symbols Paterson and illustrator Francois Roca make his presence clear. The way the children run toward him, the shadow he casts over a crippled man’s upturned face, all make Jesus the focal point of the story, even when he stands just off stage.

In her dust jacket bio, Paterson writes, “The challenge for those of us who care about our faith and about a hurting world is to tell stories which will carry the words of grace and hope in their bones and sinews and not wear them like fancy dress.” In The Light of the World, Katherine Paterson does just that.

The Light of the World: The Life of Jesus for Children
Katherine Paterson, Francois Roca (2008)

May 3, 2013 / 0 Comments

The Jesus Storybook Bible

From the moment that we first met, I knew that The Jesus Storybook Bible was a treasure among children’s Bibles. Even then, I didn’t appreciate how wonderful it was until I encountered another, more old-school, children’s Bible and found that, where The Jesus Storybook Bible treats Scripture as a seamless, coherent whole, the stories in the old-school Bible kept an awkward distance from each other, like students at a junior high dance. That old school Bible made no effort to weave the parts into a whole, or to answer the pressing question, “Why do these stories matter?” Even to a child, it’s clear that most of the people in the Bible behave badly, so why must we read about them?

Enter Sally Lloyd-Jones:

. . . the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne—everything—to rescue the one he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life!

You see, the best thing about this Story is—it’s true.

Every story in The Jesus Storybook Bible is told eloquently, with the occasional endearing aside to the reader, and every one ends on a note of hope: he is coming! The Savior—who will break that curse, heal that wound, fulfill that prophecy—is coming!

These stories matter because they are all about Jesus. Lloyd-Jones makes that plain, even in the subtitle of the book: Every story whispers his name. They all point toward him, are fulfilled in him, are significant because of him.

As parents reading this to our 18-month-old daughter for the first time, we were stunned to hear such massive truths articulated so clearly, and we found ourselves moved as we read about Leah, unloved by man but beloved of God, or Zaccheaus, who didn’t have any friends (none)—until Jesus befriended him.

The Jesus Storybook Bible shows the Bible not as a dusty tome of ancient lore or as a thesis on wishful thinking, but as a book that matters because it is true. So many different authors, spanning centuries and cultures, sat down to write their own chapters of that one, seamless book, detailing God’s “Never-Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love,” and Lloyd-Jones conveys the magnitude and complexity of that with joy, grace and just the right sort of humor.

And I haven’t even touched on Jago’s illustrations. They are glorious.

We have read this book dozens of times. We’re on our second copy of it actually, as the first has been lovingly manhandled by our small daughters. My husband even uses it when leading Bible study discussions (sometimes, even college students benefit from full color illustrations). But certain passages still take my breath away as I read them, still delight as though I’d never heard them before, and best of all, drive me to my Bible to dig into the stories with a new enthusiasm.

The Jesus Storybook Bible
Sally Lloyd-Jones, Jago (2007)

Tag: picture book (page 39 of 40)

The Story of Esther

The Moses Basket

How to be a Baby, by Me the Big Sister

The Light of the World

The Jesus Storybook Bible

Welcome

Browse

Policies

Blogroll