Retold by author Virginia Hamilton and illustrated by Barry Moser, In the Beginning is a collection of creation stories from around the world. Given the Newbery Honor award in 1989, it has received acclaim for it's beautiful watercolor illustrations and for the collection of such varied myths. However, I was not as impressed as I had hoped to be. Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe this type of 'retelling' is not my cup of tea. At any rate, I gave it a try.
The book is organized by 25 narratives, or stories called myths. The myths are about how things came to be on earth or even how the earth came into being. They are told as truths that guide the people who have created and retold the stories. Most of these stories are so old that we as readers cannot imagine a time before the stories began. Regardless of how we feel about them as truths, they played an important role in various cultures around the world. The myths narrated in this book are all about creation: creation of the world, god/gods, and human kind. According to the author, these stories told, "how humankind learned to live upon the earth."
Recommended for ages 12 and up, I would only recommend this book if a student had a serious interest in creation myths or a project to research multiple myths. It would be a convenient and efficient way to browse myths from places such as China, Africa, America, and others. It's a one-stop shop for browsing and reviewing. However, I would much prefer the author to have given a brief introduction of the origin of each myth before the narrative. As you are reading, it's difficult to understand where the story is coming from; you have no point of reference for the narrative. There is a brief comment after each story, but it feels as if it is too little too late. I had trouble wanting to continue reading the stories. I found myself wanting to only 'flip' through the pages. While the illustrations are interesting, they did not interest me. My assumption is that the expressionistic style is used to encourage the imagination of the reader. However, it just left me with a dark, dismal feeling.
Overall, this book would not make it into my top ten list...or my top 100 for that matter. To use a term from many of the creation myths, this book laid a "cosmic egg" or wasn't quite what it was 'cracked up' to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment