Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline
Houghton Mifflin, 2011
$16.99, ages 7-10, 32 pages
$16.99, ages 7-10, 32 pages
A father and son walk a desert collecting tears of sap for market, not yet knowing that the largest of those pearls will become a gift for a baby named Jesus.
In this evocative, masterfully painted story, Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park joins with renowned illustrator Bagram Ibatoulline to weave a captivating tale about myrrh, the third gift given by the wise men to the Christ child.
Imagining a father teaching his son how to gather the treasured resin, Park describes the two walking with a basket, water-gourd and an ax across a landscape almost entirely of sandy rock to a grove of stunted and spiny trees.
The boy's father kneels by one of the gnarled trees "to see inside." Gently, he feels the bark with his hands, and plucks off a leaf and sniffs, to determine whether its myrrh is ready to be harvested.
Finding a tree that is aged just right, he carefully selects a spot to wound, to cut a shallow X, so that the tree will weep. Then, making the cut, he watches as the sap bubbles up into a big tear.
After waiting for the tear's surface to dry into a shell, the father twists the resin off with his fingers and places it in their basket.
On this day, as the two are finishing their harvest, they see the biggest tear yet. It's the size of a hen's egg and the boy's father gives his son the honor of teasing it off.
This tear and the others will bring good money at the spice market. Some people will buy them for medicine or to flavor wine, but most will purchase them for embalming loved ones.
Two weeks pass and soon it's time for the spice market. As they arrive to sell their tears, they're ushered into a tent where three wise
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: mommy bloggers, holiday gift guide, 2011, Scherenschnitte, Pamela Dalton, The Story of Christmas, paper art for children, biblical stories for children, best christmas books, nativity books, Add a tag
Illustrations by Pamela Dalton
Chronicle, 2011
$17.99, all ages, 32 pages
In this reverent retelling of the nativity story, illustrations look as if they were pulled from the walls of a church.
Using a technique rooted in 16th Century folk art, Pamela Dalton scissor-cuts designs from a single piece of paper, then watercolors in details and mounts the scenes on a black backdrop.
Using a technique rooted in 16th Century folk art, Pamela Dalton scissor-cuts designs from a single piece of paper, then watercolors in details and mounts the scenes on a black backdrop.
Each design is a fragile tapestry of paper and has a mural-like quality. Ornate and naturalistic, it conveys a feeling of antiquity that works beautifully with the story, retold here from the King James Bible.
In one spread, readers see the angel Gabriel alighting before Mary, an Easter lily being offered in his hand, and later, three shepherds arrive at the manager to see baby Jesus, each of their gowns elaborately cut in repeating patterns.
At times, Dalton frames scenes with trees, their bows weighted by apples as flowers vigorously climb up around their trunks. Other times, carved stone fences, bridges or rolling paths define the background, as birds and butterflies angle here and there, or stars shimmer in the sky.
Each scene feels like a fresco commissioned for the wall (or ceiling) of a chapel, and is painted in delicate, earthy hues that evoke feelings of profound respect and peacefulness.
The most exquisite cuts resemble intricate carvings and look as if they might tear if they were touched.
On one page, baby Jesus is swaddled on an oval bed of wheat, its stalks as fine as feathers. On other pages, angel wings in tan tones look like thin wood filigree that's been cut with a laser.
Once again, the result is astounding: images that suggest the look of aged materials, parchment or plaster or wood, as if the pictures themselves were as old as the story.
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