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Bless Us All
A Child’s Yearbook of Blessings
written and illustrated by Cynthia Rylant
Aladdin Paperbacks edition, 2001
Cynthia Rylant is nothing if not multifaceted. She has written award-winning young adult fiction on topics ranging from grief to substance abuse to World War II. She has created memorable characters such as Mr. Putter and Henry and Mudge in books for early readers. She has written poetry based on Depression-era photographs.
Bless Us All is a prayer illustrated by Rylant’s own childlike acrylic paintings. Beginning with January and progressing through the year, Rylant’s prayer calls for blessings on the various qualities and characteristics of the seasons, both natural and human-made. In April we bless “the raindrops / from the sky,” in July “the colors / blazing bright” of a fireworks show. Come September we bless the school buses and those in them, as well as those who stay at home and wait, and by November and December we are blessing communities and celebrations and wonders of the world.
Rylant’s attention to details -- the dogs and cats and buds and buttercups -- that children encounter and notice makes Bless Us All familiar and comfy for young bedtime readers and their parents. Her paintings, with their naïve grace, also attend the details with charm and friendliness. As a bedtime book, Bless Us All brings the day to a calm, hopeful, and welcome close, leading children to a peaceful sleep in a world that, year-round, invites and deserves our blessing.
I Dreamed I Was a Ballerina
a girlhood story by Anna Pavlova
illustrated with art by Edgar Degas
Metropolitan Museum of Art and Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2001
The idea to combine text from Anna Pavlova’s autobiography with paintings of Edgar Degas seems so natural it is almost a wonder that it has not been done before. Pavlova’s text tells of her discovery of theater and dance and her dream of dancing as Sleeping Beauty: “I never suspected that I just discovered the idea that was to guide me throughout my life.”
The discovery of one’s dream is a moment of import on many levels. Pavlova’s words focus on the discovery itself; the paintings of Degas indicate the level of inner and outer commitment that will be involved in Anna’s realization of the dream. Degas’ dancers, in full costume, practicing at the barre, or at rest, exude interior and exterior life.
I Dreamed I Was a Ballerina, produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will delight dancers, young and not-so-young, who are working to realize and enflesh their own artistic dreams. Connoisseurs of ballet and its history will also welcome this book for its fusion of the of the genre’s great dancers and one of its great appreciators.
Gandhi
written and illustrated by Demi
Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2001
This illustrated biography of Gandhi arrives at a timely moment, when violence is being answered by violence and Gandhian insights -- “the force of love by peace always wins over violence” -- appear to be far from our consciousness. Told in a quiet, understated style, Gandhi’s life and influence strike the reader as remarkable indeed, and well worth further exploration.
Demi’s paintings are effective as well, with an underlying calm in the midst of crowds and conflict. Her images are colorful and inviting and occasionally disturbing, as in a two-page spread depicting Gandhi being thrown off a train for refusing to move from first- to third-class because of his skin color. The paintings offer a great deal to the eye of the viewer who chooses to linger and explore.
The author skillfully provides a comprehensive understanding of Gandhi’s life and work -- his love for the world’s scriptures, the rights of the downtrodden, his belief in unity in diversity. She also clearly presents the conflicted world into which Gandhi brought his message of Satyagraha, and gives us great insight into a saint whose last words, “I forgive you, I love you, I bless you,” were spoken in the presence of the man who had just fired a bullet into his chest.
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