From Kirkus:
Working as hard as any adult slave, this young girl expresses her bewilderment and fear as leaping frogs and itching, biting fleas disturb the masters. Fatal illness creeps in, affecting beast and man except in the Jewish homes marked with lamb’s blood. Rhyming verse carries the Passover story with a lyrical flair. “Made our way to sifting sands, / Scrambling feet, but clasping hands. / Thirsting, thrilling, full of fright— / None of us were slaves that night.” Ominously dark and murky paintings done in acrylic portray the frightened, fleeing throng finally reaching a wild, thrashing sea that is “ripped in two!” Confusion and trepidation turn to joyful surprise, as indicated by the rose-colored backdrop behind a smiling daughter and mother, thrilled to have crossed over to the open land and freedom. This poetic, child-oriented interpretation brings a dramatic insight and illumination to the ancient legend.
A vivid and compelling introduction to the 10 plagues portion of the Seder ceremony. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book/religion. 5-7)
I want to write something more about this book soon here, about what it means to have written it, to have it coming out. It felt so so so so impossible, when I began to write it, years ago.
But for now, i just want to say how honored I am by Catia Chien’s powerful art, the amazing job Schwartz & Wade has done with it. And I’m so so pleased that Kirkus llikes it too!
This entry was posted
on Monday, December 24th, 2012 at 11:25 pm and is filed under Blog.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 27th, 2012 at 7:27 pm
I’m excited to get my hands on this book- it looks lovely! I have just now discovered your blog (after reading a comment you posted below mine on a Heavy Medal blog post!) and am just TICKLED to read it! I live just outside of Baltimore with copious amounts of rescued animals and 1 husband, and I volunteer several hours a week at Baltimore Animals Rescue and Care Shelter, and teach kindergarten. I also had a best friend in 4th grade with whom I wrote “novels” (yes, we actually called them novels- so ambitious were we). We grew up, and she sadly moved to a horrible place called California but I still love her dearly. Looking forward to seeing more books from you in the future- keep ‘em comin!