The Wisdom Bird

by Sheldon Oberman, Neil Waldman (Illustrator)

King Soloman is wise, the wisest man in the world. One day, the Queen of Sheba--the wisest woman in the world--arrives at the gates of Jerusalem. She has come form a faraway land to see Solomon put this wisdom to work. "Name anything," says the king. What the queen asks of Solomon is startling. To fulfill her request, he must change the birds of the sky--and change them forever. Soon the fate of every bird in the world rests with a small, colorful bird called the hoopoe. The roots of the story of Solomon, Sheba, and the hoopoe bird are deep. Versions of the story are found in the folklore of Israel, Yemen, and East Africa. Out of this folklore, Sheldon Oberman has fashioned his own moving version of the tale, while Neil Waldman's stunning paintings reflect a blending of the tale's Jewish and African traditions. This tale, which speaks to us of respect for different people and the different creatures of the world, is ancient and powerful.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Mythology

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Adrienne]

King Solomon is the wisest man in the world. He is so wise that the wisest woman in the world, Queen Sheba, comes to Jerusalem to meet with him. Her one request: that he make a palace out of the beaks of birds. Through this difficult undertaking and the shrewdness of the colorful hoopoe, Solomon and Sheba learn a valuable lesson about promises.

Neil Waldman's bright illustrations are evocative of Middle Eastern and African art and work with Sheldon Oberman's read-aloud text make this mixing of folktales a memorable one for children and adults alike.

[Hannah]

Interesting, if potentially confusing. Three fables/folktales thrown into one, taken from three very different traditions. This and books like Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters make me want to teach a class on how we make up folktales and also how we decide that things are ancient folktales when they seem exotic to us, even if they're actually made up by contemporary authors.

But I digress. Anyway. This is kind of weird, but it would make for a good story in a young classroom.

[Buxmont Uu]

PBBT 12

[Jean-Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can the wisest man and woman in the world learn from a little hoopoe bird? "It is better to break a promise than to do something that is wrong."

[Gretchen Oates · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 Story of how the hoopoe bird got its crown of feathers as well as teaching the moral that it is better to break a promise than do something that is wrong.

[Shoshanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Tale of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheeba adapted from the Tanakh, Ashkenazi Jewish stories, Yemenite Jewish stories, and North African stories too! I also just read another picture book about King Solomon and the Queen of Sheeba and she is depicted as coming from Yemen, looking more Arabic. I guess we will probably never know what people looked like from the Tanakh!

[Tarawyn Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the artwork. Neil Waldman did a great job of incorporating Jewish, African, and bird imagery into nearly every page. And I liked the story. Even though Solomon had knowledge, he lacked wisdom, until the hoopoe bird made him realize the consequences of what he wanted to do.