Michael Oren Fitzgerald

I was expecting a "Christmas" book steeped in classic art with accompanying Scripture from the King James translation of the Bible. What it actually is, though, is Christ's birth and early life and a third section on His teachings using famous art from around the world to illustrate compiled portions of Scripture in the King James Version.

This is quite a book. But as with all books, some will like it more than others. Since much of the classic art pieces were executed many years ago when the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches were dominant, there is much focus on the Madonna and Child with accompanying halos around their heads. There is a table of illustrations at the back of the book identifying each of the pieces of art with artist, location, year work was finished and name of piece of art. This is very nice for children and adults who will be visiting locales that display this art but it also works as a tutorial in naming and identifying art. It is amazing to behold art that has existed for 1,000 years or more.

Back to the purpose and splendor of the book..... the real gem to me is that they are using the beautiful King James Version to recount the birth of Christ, His childhood, and His teachings. This even includes a wonderful section of the Sermon on the Mount.

I don't really see this as a children's book, but a family book. One that can be tucked away on the family bookshelf and referred to at special times.

Very nice and worth pursuing.

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy from Wisdom Tales Publishing to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own and freely given.… (meer)

“It is but an old woman’s dream…” says Waheenee of Hidatsa, mourning the passing of a way of life. And “We are all related,” repeats a phrase from a Sioux prayer. This beautiful book, blending gorgeous images, old and new, of people animals and scenery—all related—with words, prayers, poems and tales—from the people who lived here first—brings dream to life and helps the reader learn relationship.

Text and images are paired beautifully, flowing from page to page. Trees, in image and word, lead to musings on walking “with bare feet on the sacred earth,” to medicine, earth, sky, and mountain. Gorgeous sunrises, the circles of seasons… Indeed, all “[w]e who are clay, blended by the Master Potter” will find reminders of our own spirituality within these pages, whatever our faith, and be drawn by an evident respect for the whole of creation.

Bird song, bird nests and human nests; the words enthrall and the images flow, making this a book to be read in one awe-inspired sitting, or to be savored dawn after dawn at the window of the reader’s nest, looking out on beauty and asking, “Who made you?” Then know, “We do not walk alone.”

A book that combines cathedral-like imagery, pray-book sacredness, holy anthem, praise and poetry in the presence of nature’s glory, Spirit of the Earth is a picture book to treasure and delight in over and again.

Disclosure: I was given a copy by the publisher and can hardly believe my good fortune; it’s a beautiful book!… (meer)