More than two dozen children's books about the Bible were published during 1993 that can help bring it to life for the children of many different faiths. Most of these new books take stories from the Old Testament and add elegant illustrations in appealing formats. Following are several that demonstrate different ways that the stories of old can be heartwarming and engaging for today's young readers.
The most impressive is THE ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN'S BIBLE, with art by Bill Farnsworth (Harcourt Brace). Included are 140 selections from the Old and New testaments, along with 160 full-color paintings. Each story, about one page in length, lists the chapter and verse to the King James version of the Bible.An outstanding part of this collection, which was completed by well-known biblical scholars, is the additional references. They include maps, a biblical dictionary and sections on geography of the Holy Land, biblical plants and animals, ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, life and religion at the time of Jesus, the work of the apostles and notes about the translation of the Bible and about other Bibles throughout the world. Additional notes about each section are also included.
THE ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN'S OLD TESTAMENT, a selection of stories by the same artist and publisher, is also available. The poetic language of the original Scriptures was retained in both volumes; however, certain terms have been simplified or modernized for younger readers, although the meaning of the original Scriptures remains intact.
Seventeen stories have been adapted by Martin Waddell for STORIES FROM THE BIBLE: OLD TESTAMENT STORIES RETOLD (Ticknor and Fields/Houghton Mifflin). The text is simply written and the print is large, which might appeal to more-hesitant readers. Geoffrey Patterson's energetic drawings accompany the modern telling, which is recommended for young listeners and those in grades three and up.
David, the shepherd boy who kills Goliath, is one of the most popular stories to be taken from the Bible and formatted as a picture book. It's been done before but never quite as dramatically as Leonard Everett Fisher's stunning, boldly colored pictures for DAVID AND GOLIATH (Holiday House). The proportions on each page are eye-catching, such as the heads of Saul and later Goliath that fill an entire page.
THE SHEPHERD'S SONG: THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM, illustrated by Julia Miner (Dial), is a lovely rendition of this timeless message. Each line of the psalm is illustrated on a double-page spread that portrays the different facets of herding sheep, which has an underlying direction of peace and movement from danger to safety.
BLESSED ARE YOU: TRADITIONAL EVERYDAY HEBREW PRAYERS, by Michelle Edwards (Lothrop), is a collection of 13 Hebrew prayers of thanksgiving, peace and comfort illustrated particularly for the young reader. There is no written story, but the illustrations depict children in situations where prayer might be of assistance. The original Hebrew prayer appears in the upper part of the page (which is read from right to left), with the author's translation in the middle. The transliteration of the Hebrew at the bottom is read from left to right.
The creation story is part of nearly every culture. In 1988, Virginia Hamilton collected 25 such tales for IN THE BEGINNING (Harcourt). This year, three new picture books use original texts to tell how the world began. James Weldon Johnson's poem, written in 1919, is now put with Carla Golembe's pictures for THE CREATION (Little, Brown). This powerful text, "And God stepped out in space/And he looked around and said:/I'm lonely -/I'll make me a world . . ." is often used in storytelling sessions and as part of African-American verse. Golembe's pictures, although technically a unique process of printmaking, are just not a match for the vigor of, "And he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!" or "Then into it he blew the breath of life/And man became a living soul."
The opposite is true of LIGHT, by Sarah and Neil Waldman (Harcourt), where the artwork far surpasses the text. Considering that Waldman is a well-known artist and used his young daughter's script, the mismatch might not be quite so irritating. The words are childlike. The acrylic paintings are controlled and have brick-like motifs that reflect the effort of making the world from formless matter.
GOD'S GIFT, by Jean Richards and designed by Norman Gorbaty (Doubleday), is the most striking of the three creation stories. The splendid stenciled paintings accompany a story of man's creation: "Man took a step. And then another. Man looked up at God and smiled. Man liked being alive." The stories include animals: "Lion proudly swished its tail and padded off into the garden. . . . Snake flicked its tongue and wiggled off into the garden. . . ." The artwork uses broad, humorous sweeps of body and foliage set in deep black backgrounds.
What is most sensitive about each of the above works and the accompanying press releases is the encouragement to use them as intermediate sources of Scripture before and with the standard text; not a replacement of them.