Picture book history and theology

Our local library is not huge, but it regularly adds new titles to its catalog. (I always wonder what the the librarians do with the old books.)  Here are a couple of newly published picture books I picked up last week, not to read to the toddler, but to let my older kids enjoy.  They still like to skim through the library books I bring home and will read to their baby sister regularly. 

I also like to learn from picture books. With all the recent interest in Alexander Hamilton because of the musical, this picture book about the similarities and differences between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton was readily picked up by my readers of all ages. It doesn't really explore their political differences carefully, but it does give an brief introduction to their roles in American history, but political and cultural.  And although I'm sure it was inspired in part by the musical, it provides some interesting comparisons to the recent election in terms of illustrating how bitter political divisions can become. 

This other newer book, Dear Pope Francis, follows in the footsteps of other books of letters to previous popes. This one has cute illustrations, and some of Pope Francis's responses are instructive to adults as well as children.  The letter pictured below is the one that was most memorable to me, partly because the question comes from an older child concerned for his grandpa, and partly because Pope Francis's response uses imagery that seems all too literal for this community.  The local iconic bridge was closed again yesterday for "police activity," which is how the traffic alert texts read when the police are trying to intervene in a suicide attempt.  The bridge is high; the water is deep. We pray for God's mercy in the fall.

These letters read:

Your holiness,

Will my grandpa, a non-Catholic who is not a person willing to do something evil, go to heaven when dies? In other words, if someone never makes any penances, how big a sin must he commit for him to go down to Hell?
God bless you, Ivan

Age 13, China

Dear Ivan,

Jesus loves us so very much, and he wants all of us to go to Heaven. God's will is that everybody would be saved. Jesus walks with us until the very last moment of our lives, so that we can be with him always. Now appearance can certainly deceive us. But in fact, Jesus is beside us throughout our lives -- to the very last moment! -- to save us.

Once, a woman went to a holy priest whose name was John Maria Vianney. He was the pastor of the parish in Ars, in France. The woman began to cry, because her husband had committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. She was desperate because she thought that he husband had certainly ended up in hell. But Father John Maria, who was a saint, said to her, "Look, between the bridge and the river, there is the mercy of God."

Franciscus

Our latest geography lesson comes from an older book that is also subtly educational: Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy World. The copy the library has is a new edition reprinted for the 50th anniversary of the original.

Emily Arnold McCully has a new book out about Clara the rhinoceros who was paraded around Europe as a means of entertaining and educating the royalty and others around the time Hamilton and Burr were feuding.  A bittersweet story, it hints at both the joy animal companionship can provide and the problems of removing a wild animal from its natural habitat. I've always liked having animals around the house, but have usually returned all of our rescued pets - turtles, a baby squirrel, baby birds, hermit crabs,- back to the wild for fear they will die on us. Clara lives because her owner is willing to make great sacrifices to keep her alive, but I'm afraid McCully makes Clara so adorable that many children will want a pet rhinoceros.

The toddler regularly sniffs out and requests Frozen books. Our library does not display movie tie-in books in prominent places, happily, but somehow she finds them readily.  I don't know how she manages to locate these books - other children leave them out, or she finds them on the reshelving cart - but I'm trying to combat their allure by finding other princess and ballerina books.  Here are a couple newer editions of classic tales illustrated by Jen Corace and retold by Cynthia Rylant. I loved the illustrations, but both stories were a little melancholy for the Baby.

 

I enjoyed this last title, Some Things I've Lost, by Cybele Young, more than anyone else in the household, because I have a long catalog of beloved objects that have been lost or broken along the way, or sometimes I have given away things that were hard to part with. For instance, I just donated a blanket to a drive for homeless people organized by one of my CRE students, but I had hard time doing it because the blanket was a going away gift from the kids' school principal from their little school in Mississippi.  She had received it after Hurricane Katrina from someone who made it out of two old sheets - one a pretty floral and one a soft faded green flannel. They were just knotted together, not truly quilted or pieced - except on one side where there is some piecing that must cover a flaw or a stain. I should have photographed it.  I gave it away because it has been sitting in my blanket box for five years.  We don't use it, nor do I pull it out and say, "Look, kids, this blanket represents someone's generosity after a great tragedy and then someone else's generosity to us when we were heading out on another adventure."  Now I wish I had done something of the sort.  But it is gone. I didn't have any other blankets to give - they have either been donated or they are in use. And I think the original creator had intended it to be used by someone in need. So it will continue its life keeping someone else warm.  Just as this book imagines a new life for lost things, it helps to imagine the crafter and the multiple recipients of that blanket being knit together in some metaphysical, communion of saints way of connecting.