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
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
Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone.
A 7-year-old descends into the Land of the Lost in search of his beloved comfort object.
Jack has loved Dur Pig long enough to wear the beanbag toy into tattered shapelessness—which is why, when his angry older stepsister chucks it out the car window on Christmas Eve, he not only throws a titanic tantrum and viciously rejects the titular replacement pig, but resolves to sneak out to find DP. To his amazement, the Christmas Pig offers to guide him to the place where all lost Things go. Whiffs of childhood classics, assembled with admirable professionalism into a jolly adventure story that plays all the right chords, hang about this tale of loss and love. Along with family drama, Rowling stirs in fantasy, allegory, and generous measures of social and political commentary. Pursued by the Land’s cruel and monstrous Loser, Jack and the Christmas Pig pass through territories from the Wastes of the Unlamented, where booger-throwing Bad Habits roam, to the luxurious City of the Missed for encounters with Hope, Happiness, and Power (a choleric king who rejects a vote that doesn’t go his way). A joyful reunion on the Island of the Beloved turns poignant, but Christmas Eve being “a night for miracles and lost causes,” perhaps there’s still a chance (with a little help from Santa) for everything to come right? In both the narrative and Field’s accomplished, soft-focus illustrations, the cast presents White.
Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-79023-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
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