Animals of the Bible
By: Dorothy P. Lathrop
Medal Winner
Reviewed by: Sandy Hall
Animals of the Bible introduces the reader to many of the memorable animals of the well-known Old and New Testament stories. The black-and-white drawings are combined with text from the King James Bible. First published in 1937, the book's stories would probably have been easily recognized by most readers. Some of the Biblical animals depicted include the scapegoat, Balaam's ass, David's sheep, the behemoth and leviathan, the eagle, Daniel's lions, the fishes Peter caught, the Palm Sunday colt, and the cock that crowed after Peter's denial. One of the early entries is "The Serpent and Eve" which does show Eve in the nude with her long hair draping over her body to cover her private area but not her upper body. Just a heads up on that. Otherwise, I highly recommend this lovely book. It would make a nice bedtime book to read one of the entries each evening. Most children love animals, so I think they would enjoy this book, as well as learn or be reminded of many Bible stories.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds
By: Helen Dean Fish
Illustrated by: Robert Lawson
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
These nursery jingles are part of children's heritage from the past. They have probably been as genuinely loved as the shorter and more familiar Mother Goose rhymes, but because they have not had the multiple publications of Mother Goose, are not as well known, and many of them were in danger of being forgotten.
Twenty-four of the these delightful nursery poems and songs are collected here, after years of research, some of them from the lips of singers who had them from a mother or grandmother but never saw them in print; others findable only in out-of-print books. They have given delight to children as sung or told by mothers in American homes for several generations. Simple airs are given for the jingles that have tunes.
Robert Lawson was chosen as the artist who would catch most completely the jollity and flavor and vigor of these old rhymes. His drawings in two colors are delightful and make a merry book for children that will be equally enjoyed by grown-ups for whom these songs wake happy memories.
From the dust jacket
Seven Simeons: A Russian Tale
By: Boris Artzybasheff
Honor
Reviewed by: Sherry Early
Recommended age: Age 8 and up, the tale is too long for younger children
Also read and recommended by: Sandy Hall
Seven Simeons, a Russian tale retold and illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff, is an odd story, and if you're looking for a moralistic fable, look elsewhere. King Douda is rich, wise, powerful, and very good-looking. He's also unhappy because he can't find a worthy maiden for a bride. When King Douda does hear of a princess who might match his exceptional beauty, it is a disappointment because she lives on an island so far away that it would take twenty years to go and fetch her and bring her back to marry.
It's clear that only a miracle can help King Douda claim his bride. And that's where the seven Simeons come into the story, seven peasant brothers all named Simeon who have been instructed by their father to work hard and each learn a different trade. Their "trades" are more like magical skills, and the rest of the story is about how the seven Simeons serve King Douda and help him to gain his bride, the beautiful Helena.
The language in this tale is fairy tale/folk tale language, and the illustrations are quite Russian with peasants in blousy Russian costume and Russian boots and beautiful red and green ink prints of ships and castles and birds and fish and all sorts of wonders. The story ends, of course, with a wedding feast, but not before the seven Simeons show off their miraculous trades and abduct the princess, who promptly falls in love with the handsome King Douda. The couple ask for forgiveness from Princess Helena's father, which is granted.
Don't sweat the details. It's just an odd little Russian story with award winning illustrations.
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