A Notes from the Windowsill annotated bibliography by Wendy E. Betts. Copyright 2005
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Last Updated 10/26/05
The Mystery Bear: a Purim Story by Leone Adelson. Illustrated by Naomi
Howland. Clarion, 2004 (0-618-33725-3) $15.00
A touch similar to Eric Kimmel's The Hanukkah Guest,
this tells the story of a little bear who wakes up early from his
hibernation, with a rumbling stomach. A delicious smell leads him
to a house where a crowd of people are dressed in costumes and making
lots and lots of noise. Little Bear is welcomed and given honey and
raisins and hamantaschen... and only a little boy named Itzik suspects
the bear isn't wearing a costume! A fun story, with lively
illustrations of the traditional Purim party. (4-8)
Queen Esther Saves Her People by Rita Golden Gelman. Illustrated by Frane Lessac. Scholastic, 1998 (0-590-47025-6) $15.95
Although it doesn't quite succeed in making the somewhat convoluted story
of Queen Esther follow reason, this is otherwise a smooth, easily read
retelling of the story of the brave queen. Its main attraction is the
illustrations, which evoke an earlier time through rich details and
unsophisticated portraiture and show a lovely olive-skinned Esther. An
author's note describes the celebration of Purim, which commemorates
the story.
(5-8)
Queen Esther the Morning Star written and illustrated by
Mordecai Gerstein. Simon & Schuster, 2000 (0-689-81372-4)
In an author's note, Gerstein writes that Purim is a special holiday for
him because of his namesake Morecai; perhaps that's why his book is so
reminiscent of a Purim play. The biblical story is told with a great deal
of dialogue and the illustrations are quite theatrical, with caricature
villains and an Esther pale as paper except for spots of color on her
cheeks. (The text also appears to occasionally sacrifice perfect
faithfulness to the biblical version for narrative flow.) Esther, sadly,
is by far the least visually interesting character in the book, doing
little besides standing around looking wan and soulful, but I do love the
last page, in which she,
Mordecai and King Ahasuerus are all shown contendedly munching on
hamantashen (the pastry traditionally eaten on Purim.) (5-8)
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