LOVE MADE

Spoken-word artist Aragon brings her poetry to the picture-book page in her debut.

Love is a powerful creative force. Flowing from the tripartite God of love, its generative ability creates light, sky, plants, and animals of all kinds, culminating in humanity, the crown of creation. Human beings then, as image bearers of the Creator, with their own capacity for both love and creation, bring forth a child through the intimacy of husband and wife. This is a tale of two genesis stories, a poetic retelling of the biblical Genesis as well as the genesis of a family, all centered on love. Though the rhythm of the text is lovely, the implication of sexual intimacy in marriage as the exclusive means of creating a family unfortunately limits the audience to only heteronormative couples and nonadoptive parents. The colorful and bold illustrations are visually striking, depicting an appropriately brown-skinned Adam and Eve and a contemporary black family as the focal points of the dual creation narrative. A lovely celebration of the power of love and its role in the traditional nuclear family, though a bit on the exclusive side.

Artistry and poetry preaching effectively to a particular sort of choir