1938 Caldecott Winner
Book Title: Animals of the Bible: A Picture Book
Author: (forward by Helen Dean Fish) selected text from the King James Bible
Illustrator: Dorothy P. Lathrop
About the Illustrator:
Born: April 16, 1891
Began Illustrating in 1919
About the Illustrations:
Black and White Drawings (I searched and searched for what medium was used, I could not locate it. Not sure if the drawings were pencil, charcoal or other.)
Book Notes:
72 pages long
Table of Contents included (I note this because most picture books don’t include a Table of Contents, they are not long enough and are usually on one topic, no table of contents needed.)
My Review:
Wow! What an interesting book! The text was difficult at times to read, but the Bible often is. There were selected texts that had anything to do with animals. Each text had a title, the body of the text and then the Bible citation at the end. With that said, there is not much else to say. The Bible text is just that, there is no editing when it comes to the original text. So let’s keep going!
Okay now for the art! The black and white drawings are so detailed. The TIME!!! Holy cow the TIME it took to do over 30 drawings for the book. This was obviously a collection of work that had been done over a long period of time. I can only begin to speculate the hours spent on all the art pieces in the book. Each drawing was detailed right down to the fur and feathers of the animals. The book I got was the 17th Printing and the pages were starting to fade, I would really enjoy seeing these drawings as bright as intended.
Things I did note about the style of illustrations. I thought it was interesting that to accompany the Bible that black and white drawings were used. I mean think about it, black and white=good vs. evil!!??? Right???? The drawings also had a very clear edge/border to them. Nothing went beyond that point. Why do I note this? When it comes to illustrations everything has a reason. Here the message was, stay in the box! Don’t even think about putting a smudge outside of it! What a reflection of the text and the times. Hitler was on the rise and no one wanted to stand up to him and say differently. Again, stay in the box!
Along with what was just said, once you get inside the illustration boxes the images are soft and curved. This to me reflects that things are easy going, peaceful…..as long as you stay in the box!! Another thing I noted was that the people that were included in the illustrations were often very bright! Not a lot of over detailing here. But then, Angels need to show bright and white. They are the good right? In contrast, when Ms. Lathrop went to draw a snake or serpent the detail was overwhelming! Each scale was drawn the background of the drawing black! Dark, Dark, Dark! Evil, Evil, Evil!!!
In conclusion, I do believe that Ms. Lathrop did a beautiful job of bringing life to the text. Would this be a book I would pick up again? Not sure. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at? Yup. The drawings are beautiful. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book? Nope, not one I think I need to have in my personal collection.
Okay-you have now read review number one! Tell me what you think? What did you like? Is there something I left out that you would like to learn more about? Would you like to get a copy of the book?
I would like to also say that this review is my own personal reflection.
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