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Little Rose of Sharon
When the little rose of Sharon sacrifices her beautiful red petals to save a baby dove, she hears the Creator say that her love is like that of His Son
22 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 18, 2021
Beautiful story of self-sacrifice to start our Lenten journey this year.
May 13, 2023
You can call me heartless, but I think this book fails in a lot of ways to analogically describe the sacrifice of Jesus (its seeming purpose). I would be much more apt to recommend a book like the Giving Tree if I wanted to delve into this topic with kids.
Some issues taken (in no particular order):
1. Why a Rose? This book takes its premise from a relatively obscure passage from Song of Songs, one which is disputed by biblical scholars as to what it means. Most likely the Hebrew word here doesn’t even mean “rose” so much as a different type of flower. It could have been a great starting point for an “origin/explanation” story of this passage if not for more familiar references related to roses elsewhere in Christian symbolism (for instance, Mary as the Rose of Judah, exemplified in the hymn “Lo, how a rose e’re blooming”)
2. As far as symbols go, roses are important both for their petals, their smell, and for their thorns. The thorns here appear all over Christian symbolism representing the passion-yet all that is focused on is the smell and the petals. There could have been more “bite” to the symbolism if the thorns had at least been mentioned.
3. Furthermore, the other symbolism is fuzzy at best. Why doves? Why do they reside in a fig tree? It’s as if the author thinks that by simply including these significant Christian symbols, absent from their symbolic context, that it will make the story seem more profound. But these symbols don’t function symbolically. It’s literally a family of doves, just chilling in a fig tree. Could it be the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from Genesis? My thought is that the egg falling from the fig tree represents the fall from grace of original sin. Doves usually represent the Holy Spirit and peace, and I have a hard time figuring out where this factors in, other than that the dove family at the end could represent the peace we feel having been saved by Jesus. Any way you slice it though, it’s fuzzy.
4. Rose petals don’t retain their own heat, but they could have provided some shelter for the egg. I don’t know if this really would’ve been enough to save that egg:(
5. The rose gives all her beauty up to save the egg, but she doesn’t die. She “falls asleep”, but I don’t think this implies true death. It’s self sacrifice, but partially, not totally, and therefore not on the same order of magnitude as The sacrifice of Jesus. The Giving Tree is unambiguous on this, with the tree truly giving everything. Comparatively, the Rose of Sharon is overall a fairly weak analogy for the sacrifice of Christ.
6. The illustrations in this book are nice, but nothing more than nice. The way in which they were scanned in (at least in my edition) results in a fuzzier, lower resolution image than what the art must look like directly on the canvas.
The thesis of this book is true, that any self-sacrifice is a sharing of and imaging of the Passion of our Lord. But I could say this about almost any story which involves self sacrifice. All great literature is great insofar as it is a retelling of the greatest story, and I think this book is not a particularly captivating, creative, or insightful iteration of this. It boils down to the equation: sacrifice=Jesus, and any effort to gaze deeper into the mystery is ultimately frustrated.
Some issues taken (in no particular order):
1. Why a Rose? This book takes its premise from a relatively obscure passage from Song of Songs, one which is disputed by biblical scholars as to what it means. Most likely the Hebrew word here doesn’t even mean “rose” so much as a different type of flower. It could have been a great starting point for an “origin/explanation” story of this passage if not for more familiar references related to roses elsewhere in Christian symbolism (for instance, Mary as the Rose of Judah, exemplified in the hymn “Lo, how a rose e’re blooming”)
2. As far as symbols go, roses are important both for their petals, their smell, and for their thorns. The thorns here appear all over Christian symbolism representing the passion-yet all that is focused on is the smell and the petals. There could have been more “bite” to the symbolism if the thorns had at least been mentioned.
3. Furthermore, the other symbolism is fuzzy at best. Why doves? Why do they reside in a fig tree? It’s as if the author thinks that by simply including these significant Christian symbols, absent from their symbolic context, that it will make the story seem more profound. But these symbols don’t function symbolically. It’s literally a family of doves, just chilling in a fig tree. Could it be the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from Genesis? My thought is that the egg falling from the fig tree represents the fall from grace of original sin. Doves usually represent the Holy Spirit and peace, and I have a hard time figuring out where this factors in, other than that the dove family at the end could represent the peace we feel having been saved by Jesus. Any way you slice it though, it’s fuzzy.
4. Rose petals don’t retain their own heat, but they could have provided some shelter for the egg. I don’t know if this really would’ve been enough to save that egg:(
5. The rose gives all her beauty up to save the egg, but she doesn’t die. She “falls asleep”, but I don’t think this implies true death. It’s self sacrifice, but partially, not totally, and therefore not on the same order of magnitude as The sacrifice of Jesus. The Giving Tree is unambiguous on this, with the tree truly giving everything. Comparatively, the Rose of Sharon is overall a fairly weak analogy for the sacrifice of Christ.
6. The illustrations in this book are nice, but nothing more than nice. The way in which they were scanned in (at least in my edition) results in a fuzzier, lower resolution image than what the art must look like directly on the canvas.
The thesis of this book is true, that any self-sacrifice is a sharing of and imaging of the Passion of our Lord. But I could say this about almost any story which involves self sacrifice. All great literature is great insofar as it is a retelling of the greatest story, and I think this book is not a particularly captivating, creative, or insightful iteration of this. It boils down to the equation: sacrifice=Jesus, and any effort to gaze deeper into the mystery is ultimately frustrated.
November 19, 2025
Beautiful and touching picture book and art that moves you. A fictional tale imagined as the meaning behind one of the names/titles given to Jesus. Loving and gentle way to share the concept of sacrificial love with children.
February 26, 2017
I bought and read this story as it brought back memories of an animation I saw when I was very young. The message was so powerful that I never forgot it.
March 27, 2018
This is a perfect book to read during Holy Week. It's a great book to share with older elementary age children.
November 5, 2019
A sad religious fable, but for the theme of self-sacrifice, The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde is a masterful work.
I cry every time I read it.
I cry every time I read it.
February 9, 2022
This was my favorite book back when I was little, cause it was partially about me.
August 16, 2010
My grandma got this one year for Easter. I was very young and wasn't able to read it, and never quite understood it when it was read to me, but even then I loved the pictures. They are beautiful!
As I got older, I could read the book myself and understood it. I still loved the pictures, but I like the concept of the book and how the rose dropped all her petals to keep the birds egg warm and alive.
As I got older, I could read the book myself and understood it. I still loved the pictures, but I like the concept of the book and how the rose dropped all her petals to keep the birds egg warm and alive.
April 6, 2013
On my "Favorite Easter books" list. This is a powerful yet masterfully kid-accessible story of self-donative love.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews