Sustaining.
Kimmel (Jar of Fools, p. 1287, etc.) is particularly skilled in refashioning the ritual and folklore of Judaism into widely accessible yet faith-filled retellings.
Here he recounts a soul-satisfying Hasidic legend and incorporates the persona and teachings of the 18th-century Ba'al Shem Tov ("Master of the Good Name") Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer. Gershon, rude and self-absorbed "paid no attention to how he treated others and he didn't care. For he could shed his . . . thoughtless acts like a dog sheds hair." Before each Shabbat he swept his sins (personified as impish, black creatures) into his cellar. "And once a year, on Rosh Hashanah, he stuffed them into a sack and dragged them down to the sea." But Gershon and his wife were childless. Always seeking the quick fix, he blunders in to see a tzaddik, a wonder Rabbi. The Rabbi emphasizes with Gershon's wife but cautions Gershon: "Did you think you could live so thoughtlessly forever? The sea cries out because you have polluted her waters. (Y)our wife . . . will give birth to twins . . . They will be with you five years." Heedless, the ever-arrogant Gershon is convinced he can stave off the inevitable. Five years pass and his children, Sarah and Joseph, are playing on the seashore. Horribly, Gershon's sins coalesce into a huge, black sea monster that threatens their fragile lives: "On each scale was written one of Gershon's misdeeds." Horrified, he began to plead for forgiveness—for the first time in his life. God was merciful. He acknowledged Gershon's heartfelt act of t'shuvah—repentance—and the monster was transformed into a cleansing rain. And Gershon? Having returned to his better nature—he made amends, kept "his soul clean" and never saw the monster again. A deft watercolorist, Muth (Come on Rain!, 1999 ) is particularly skilled at limning personality thorough the telling gesture. The dark grays and blacks of Gershon's sins threaten the soft earth tones, lush greens, sunny yellows. The fluid, clear blues of the sea and the freshened horizon line communicate the gratitude, the exhilaration—and the freedom—of truly placing our sins behind us.
Sustaining. (Folktale. 5-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 978-0-439-10839-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2000
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A touching, beautifully illustrated story of greatest interest to those in the New York City area.
A pair of cardinals is separated and then reunited when their tree home is moved to New York City to serve as the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
The male cardinal, Red, and his female partner, Lulu, enjoy their home in a huge evergreen tree located in the front yard of a small house in a pleasant neighborhood. When the tree is cut down and hauled away on a truck, Lulu is still inside the tree. Red follows the truck into the city but loses sight of it and gets lost. The birds are reunited when Red finds the tree transformed with colored lights and serving as the Christmas tree in a complex of city buildings. When the tree is removed after Christmas, the birds find a new home in a nearby park. Each following Christmas, the pair visit the new tree erected in the same location. Attractive illustrations effectively handle some difficult challenges of dimension and perspective and create a glowing, magical atmosphere for the snowy Christmas trees. The original owners of the tree are a multiracial family with two children; the father is African-American and the mother is white. The family is in the background in the early pages, reappearing again skating on the rink at Rockefeller Center with their tree in the background.
A touching, beautifully illustrated story of greatest interest to those in the New York City area. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7733-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
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