The Innkeeper’s Wife, written and illustrated by Muriel Drake Ryan, Ph. D., is the story of
Jesus’ birth told from the viewpoint of, appropriately, the innkeeper’s wife.
Bethlehem is a
very busy place with its citizens returning to the place of their birth to be
counted in the census and pay their taxes. As such, the inns and lodging houses
are bursting at the seams with guests.
Aaron the Innkeeper is thrilled to have so many people staying
in his inn. He loves having the extra business and he loves having other people
around. Hannah, his wife, does not share his sentiments. All the extra guests
in the inn mean extra work for her: cooking, cleaning, serving. When Mary and
Joseph show up in the middle of the night, she is unhappy that her husband has
added another burden to her heavy workload. Now she must take care of people in
the stables. What was he thinking?
I’m glad to report that she has a change of heart but I
won’t give away the rest of the story.
The
illustrations are expressive and work well with the story.
What I
Like: I like the idea of Jesus’ birth being told from a different perspective.
I realize that the story isn’t true to the Bible, but I think it can be helpful
to show children how other people were affected by the wonderful event.
What I
Dislike: I really liked the illustrations but I didn’t care for the layout of
the book. There were way too many words and not enough illustrations to go with
them, too many pages with nothing but words on them and no illustrations to
break up the text.
There
were also several punctuation errors in the text.
Overall
Rating: Good.
Age
Appeal: 8-12.
Publisher Info: WestBow Press,
2012; ISBN: 9781449762445; Paperback, $16.95.
No comments:
Post a Comment