Tidings of comfort and joy laid on with a trowel but not much regard for texts or traditions.
A version of the Nativity story with 10 narrative or musical sound clips followed by abbreviated Bible stories and devotional thoughts for each day of Advent.
Drawn from Lloyd-Jones’ The Jesus Storybook Bible (2007) with some anonymous interstitial text, the stories begin with a young girl “minding her own business” until Gabriel drops in to give her the heads-up: “He’s the One! He’s the Rescuer!” In Jago’s harmonious, cleanly drawn cartoon illustrations, most of the human characters have brown skin in a variety of shades, including (eventually) a brown-skinned baby Jesus, whose head is topped with tight, black curls. The familiar tale continues up to the appearance of “three clever men” from the East (one cued as East Asian with stereotypical Fu Manchu facial hair) in Bethlehem. It is punctuated with pressure-sensitive spots that each activate 15 to 20 seconds of either a well-known Christmas hymn or a reading by David Suchet in a plummy British accent. Twenty-four shorter daily episodes, mostly Old Testament passages with the gory bits left out, follow to offer (purported) prefigurations of God’s “Secret Rescue Plan” as revealed in the New. These range from a massacre-free version of Joshua’s entry into Jericho and (wait for it) “Daniel and the Scary Sleepover” to the parting of the Red Sea, which is incorrectly identified as the origin of Passover.
Tidings of comfort and joy laid on with a trowel but not much regard for texts or traditions. (Novelty/religion. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-310-76990-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
An inclusive, secular-leaning panorama with a simple but clever visual gimmick.
The focus is on food and fun in this yearly round of international holidays.
Beginning with Lunar New Year—properly designated an Asian celebration rather than just Chinese—the roughly chronological tally offers a mix of 16 religious, civil, cultural, and even (in the case of the Spanish town of Buñol’s “La Tomatina” festival) local holidays. Brown barely and rarely alludes to religious origins and rituals (presenting Easter, for instance, though an “important Christian holiday,” as all about hunting eggs, which are “a symbol of new life and new beginnings”) but places festive gatherings for food and frolic front and center. Konak follows suit, depicting smiling groups around tables for Eid and at a Passover seder, picnicking beneath cherry blossoms for Hanami in Japan, crowding along the green Chicago River on St. Patrick’s Day, and chucking powdered paint at one another for the Hindu festival of Holi. The groups are diverse both racially and in styles of dress. Like other entries in the Shine-a-Light series, most of the illustrations are backed with white areas and print on a solid black background so that holding the colored pages up to a light reveals hidden details. Notes at the back supply a few additional bits about each of the holidays except, oddly, the closing scene of midnight fireworks on one of the many other New Years, Jan. 1.
An inclusive, secular-leaning panorama with a simple but clever visual gimmick. (Informational novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68464-281-6
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
A solid look at a history often untold.
Many consider World War I a European ordeal, but the young protagonist of this book keeps alive a memory of a deeper story.
At least 400,000 Muslims from India, among 2.5+ million Muslims total, were part of the Allied forces’ war effort as soldiers or laborers. The narrator’s great-grandpa was one of them. After a heartfelt goodbye to his family, he journeyed thousands of miles from India to Europe. So much was different from home, says the narrator, addressing their great-grandpa throughout. The child speaks of the halal meat he ate, how he served alongside other soldiers, many of whom looked different and spoke different languages, and how he kept on praying and fasting with his fellow Muslim soldiers. Throughout, the earth-toned illustrations show beige-uniformed, turbaned men sharing a meal, marching, and experiencing the terrible soundscape of war. The book offers an interesting, lesser-known narrative related to Muslim involvement in the Great War. However, some may feel that it misses an opportunity to engage with the topic of colonialism (given that India was under British rule until 1947) or that it romanticizes war somewhat. Overall, it will be accessible to readers less familiar with Islamic life and rituals as well as those with more background knowledge and who may appreciate some of the nuances in the storyline and illustrations. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A solid look at a history often untold. (glossary, list of facts, places to visit in the U.K.) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-86037-897-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kube Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
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