The story follows a donkey, named Bethlehem, who was born on the same night and in the same stable as Jesus and who never forgets that it was a special night, symbolized by the mysterious golden light that shines from the star that guided the Magi. After the Nativity the donkey also accompanies his mother when she carries the Holy Family on their flight to Egypt. When the family returns to Israel, he goes to work in the Temple garden. We continue to follow him as he passes from owner to owner in events not directly related to the life of Jesus and as he continues to ponder the events in his life and especially the meaning of the golden light he has witnessed. All of the art in the book is inspired by various paintings from Pieter Brugel the Elder and is rich in detail and color. A nice touch is that various events in the life of Jesus are occurring in the distant background during these other scenes in the life of Bethlehem the donkey: the child Jesus in the Temple, the baptism in the Jordan, the temptation in the wilderness, the feast at Cana, Jesus walking on water, blessing the children, the raising of Lazarus, the Sermon on the Mount, etc. A list of these appearances is in the back of the book, with thumbnails to highlight Jesus. Also, this list explains which Brugel painting inspired each of Speirs' paintings. The story is recursive: each incident adds another item to the list that the donkey remembers and ponders which grows longer and longer. This is from near the end:

As he made his way into the city, Bethlehem thought of the donkeys seeking comfort in one another, the woodcutters struggling to make a living, the village children looking for fun, the farmer helping him find strength, the peasants hoping for a bountiful future, the merchants pursuing riches, the vagabonds entertaining the villagers, the students seeking knowledge, and his family searching for safety...

The repetition can get bit tedious, not only for me but even for my almost 3 year old; mostly because there are so many items in the list by the end. At the same time, it works quite well as a subtle reminder of the universality of salvation. Bethlehem later reenters the Gospel narrative when he carries Christ into Jerusalem, thinking as he does so that there is something familiar and special about this man. He stands outside in the street during the Last Supper, unaware of the momentous event happening above him. The crucifixion is not really dealt with directly in the story. The donkey is only aware of an earthquake and a great disturbance as angels challenge the forces of evil in a painting inspired by Brugel's "The Fall of the Rebel Angels". A small circle with three crosses hangs in the background almost lost in the tumult and confusion. I think it rather works, though. I like the oblique approach that allows the adult reader to mediate for the child the details of Christ's passion and death since the crucifixion itself can be rather strong material for very young children. The book ends as Bethlehem meets the resurrected Jesus in the garden and recognizes him and finally enters into his rest and peace:

The donkey's sadness, pain, and weariness left him. With joy, Bethlehem went to Him and His promise of peace, goodwill, and a new beginning for all.

I really appreciated the fine art aspects of the book. The detail-rich paintings are fascinating to our toddler, who loves to point at and ask questions about various figures in the scenes. Though I'm not sure she understands the more hidden meanings just now, as she grows she will be able to appreciate other layers. Older children will be able to understand more about the Biblical themes, to hunt for the scenes from the life of Jesus, and to connect their reading of this book with a study of Brugel's paintings. Although this book is aimed at 4-8 year-olds, it will appeal to all ages simply because of the beauty of the art and the simplicity of the story.

"Freedom is not a license for chaos" is my son's signature below his email messages. It was written by Norton Juster, of The Phantom Toolbooth fame, and it comes from our almost-17-year-old's favorite book.

The phrase is the turning point and premise of this amazing, simply delightful little Math book. Math? That is our son's most disliked subject. Wait, The Dot and the Line is not a Math book! It is a hilarious comedy! But is that all? It is a romance, a story of love deeply felt, pursued, capable of provoking great things in the soul. In a little math book? Is it possible? Yes, it is.

Our classic languages-loving son reads it aloud every time this book visits us from the library. He suffers with the straight, dull and unbending line when driven to the "edge" (of the paper— the line is drawn on the edge of the page) as the "perfect by every measure" dot flirts around with the anarchist, slothful squiggle. Moved by great love, the line at first attempts to show its own grandeur by asserting its importance in art, world politics, sports. To no avail: the dot is not impressed. Then the unimaginable happens: when almost giving up, the line, using great concentration, becomes able to make angles!

What follows next is what makes this little book a great book: the enthusiastic line makes more and more angles in a chaotic frenzy, until... it realizes that chaos without order leads nowhere. It stops, straightens itself again and it discovers that freedom is not a license for chaos. From then on, life changes for the line: exercising great control and virtue, it discovers a new world:

For months he practiced in secret. Soon he was making squares and triangles, hexagons, parallelograms, rhomboids, polyhedrons, trapezoids, parallelepiped, decagons, tetragrams and an infinite number of other shapes so complex that he had to letter his sides and angles to keep his place. Before long he had learned to carefully control ellipses, circles and complex curves...

Ah, the virtue of Mathematics! The beauty of its exact angles and dimensions. The rhythm, art and music of what it is able to create, using exercise and order! I will refrain from spoiling it completely for the new reader, but let me repeat the "moral" of the story: to the vector, the spoils.

The back jacket, after telling us that the author, among other things, runs "a support group for negative numbers" (one can glimpse Mr. Juster's opinion of the state of the culture in the 60s) mentions an award winning film, and I found it on You Tube. I was happy to see that that the screenplay was also written by the author but I warn you that the book is much better. This new 2001 edition has wonderful graphics and some different pictures as well.

This book tells the story of the passion and resurrection from the point of view of the donkey that carried Christ on his back. "The little donkey had never been ridden before, but Jesus spoke gently to him, and soon he stopped being afraid." The donkey (and an angel companion who is never mentioned in the text but is always present in the scenes) follows along after the entrance into Jerusalem and witnesses the primary events of the Gospel narratives including the Last Supper, the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Ascension. Beautiful soft watercolor illustrations with gold highlights on each page bring the story to life. The language strikes a nice balance being neither overly simple nor overly flowery. Most pleasing to me, the Eucharistic language of the Last Supper is maintained:

"Take and eat this," said Jesus, holding the bread. "It is my body." And the donkey watched as Jesus lifted up a cup of wine. "Take and drink this,"Jesus said. "It is my blood."

The bloody details of the passion are gently minimized so this book is easily read to even the youngest toddlers. For example, there are no details about the scourging just the mockery of the soldiers:

So the soldiers took Jesus away. They put a crown of thorns on his head and made fun of him. 'Hail the King of the Jews!' they said. They gave him a huge cross of wood and forced him to carry it.

A this point the donkey wishes he could help Jesus carry the cross and Simon of Cyrene does help Jesus. I like the way the donkey becomes a stand-in for the child and how this aside opens up a space to discuss with the child how we can help Jesus carry his cross. And the crucifixion and death are all covered in a simple statement: "They crucified him between two thieves." The narrative moves directly from that to Joseph requesting the body from Pilate. This allows the adult reader to help a sensitive child navigate the more difficult aspects of the passion narrative. The donkey witnesses the resurrection and the ascension and then returns home:

And the donkey stayed there the rest of his life, remembering the kind and good man he had carried on his back to Jerusalem.

I'm not thrilled with reducing Jesus to a "kind and good man" in the final sentence. There are plenty of stories and pious legends about animals recognizing the divinity of Christ and I'd have preferred the story take that tack. But it isn't a terrible distortion of Christ. At least the book covers all the essentials of the story. This is a good introduction to Easter and works well with my three-year old's level of understanding and her attention span. It will appeal to older children as well.