Jesus

by Brian Wildsmith

Explains the life of Jesus: his birth, his childhood in Nazareth, his baptism and temptation, his teaching and miracles, and finally the entry in to Jerusalem, culminating in his death and resurrection. The author is one of the great figures of children's illustration of the 20th century, and celebrates 40 years of publishing with OUP in 2002.

Genres: Picture Books, Christian

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 20, 2000

About the author

Brian Wildsmith (1930-2016) was raised in a small mining village in Yorkshire, England, where, he says, "Everything was grey. There wasn't any colour. It was all up to my imagination. I had to draw in my head..."

He won a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art where he studied for three years. For a while he taught music at the Royal Military School of Music, but then gave it up so that he could paint full time.

He has deservedly earned a reputation as one of the greatest living children's illustrators. In 1962, he published his first children's book, ABC, for which he was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal, Britain's equivalent to the Caldecott Medal. He was also a runner up for this medal for The Owl and the Woodpecker.

Wildsmith has said: "I believe that beautiful picture books are vitally important in subconsciously forming a child's visual appreciation, which will bear fruit in later life."

In 1994, the Brian Wildsmith Art Museum was established in Izukogen, a town south of Tokyo, Japan. Almost one and a half million people visited a traveling exhibition of his work in 2005. Eight hundred of his paintings are on loan to the museum.

Brian is married, has four children, and currently lives in the south of France.

— Source

Reviews

[Dianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

My five-year-old was entranced, and we read this in one sitting. This did a great job of hitting the highlights of Jesus' life while keeping it short enough to share with a child.

[Set · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jesus switched from redhead to blond in the illustrations and Mary was portrayed as a blond. All the Jewish people in this book are either blond, redheaded or have snowy white hair. They are in the Mediterranean and the majority in the Mediterranean are brunettes and there are many olive toned people. The gingers and the blondes were the savages of the North. It didn't come as a surprise to me that the writer of this book turned out to be an Englishman. England always hides their brunettes which make up the majority in England.

Aside from the inaccurate representation of the middle east, the writing is lacking in both message and description. There are better Christian books to show children, skip on this one.

[Krista · Rating 5 out of 5]

An accurate picture book with lots of details about the life of Jesus.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I read this one, but not to my son, not yet. This will probably be perfect next year starting at Christmas and continuing through the Christian calendar (Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentacost) as it tells the life stories of Jesus. A step up from his First Bible Stories book, but I don't want it to be too long and stretch his attention span too much to the point of boredom.

[Buxmont Uu]

PBBT 13

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly enough, Wildsmith doesn't do well with the illustrations here. They seem very ordinary. The story is also a little dumbed-down.