An appealing and inventive educational resource for young Christians.
A reconsideration of the heroism of Jesus’ life and the ways his story has shaped other accounts of heroism both ancient and modern.
According to Eichinger, Jesus is the ultimate protagonist; against formidable odds, he is called to save the entire world from destruction. His enemies are great—he’s not only opposed by the “triple threat of the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees,” but also by Satan’s trials of temptation. And his superpower is unbeatable because he “possesses the exclusive ability to conquer death eternally.” And like many other superheroes, Jesus, who is both human and divine, boasts something of an alter ego, or “altar ego,” a corny joke charmingly delivered by Eichinger, who is primarily targeting a young audience bored by church and religion generally. The author thoroughly recasts Jesus as “the most courageous protagonist the world ever knew” and furnishes a vivid retelling of the biblical story of Jesus’ dramatic ministry, comparing it to stories of heroic triumph in ancient literature like Homer’s Iliad and contemporary tales in popular culture that feature Spiderman, Batman, and Luke Skywalker. “The seeds of Christ’s true narrative are evident in so much of our celebrated heroic literature, from ages past to modern triumphs. The underlying difference is that the story of Jesus actually happened.” The author is a Christian pastor and writes with the focused zeal of one. The result is a powerful representation of the story of Jesus’ life, though one that has the didactic tenor of a sermon. Also, in Eichinger’s enthusiasm, he sometimes makes a case that reaches beyond the evidence he adduces. It’s hardly obvious, and certainly not on the basis of the argument he furnishes, that the tale of Jesus is completely independent of the Greco-Roman mythology that precedes his life. However, this is still a buoyantly cheerful argument that Jesus is the original superhero.
An appealing and inventive educational resource for young Christians.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-7586-6990-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Concordia Publishing House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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