Who Built the Stable?
With Audio Recording
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Who built the stable where Jesus lay? Multiple Coretta Scott King Award–winner Ashley Bryan has a very good idea in this beautiful and moving new layer to the nativity story.
Riding in an open Jeep across the plains of Africa, beloved and nationally acclaimed author and illustrator Ashley Bryan found himself comparing the terrain to Jerusalem, and the bumpy journey to that of Mary’s travel on a donkey. And he came up with a question: Who built the manger where Mary and Joseph found shelter?
The answer is conveyed in this beautifully crafted picture book that envisions a young boy, a shepherd and carpenter both who, out of love and kindness, cleared the way for another shepherd and carpenter to be born on Christmas day.
The boy looked in the infant’s eyes
And in his heart he knew
The babe would be a carpenter
He’d be a shepherd too.
Told in gentle rhyme and illustrated with Ashley Bryan’s enormous talent, this is a picture book that captures the reason for the season in all its wonder and beauty. Who Built the Stable? is a celebration of Christmas, of the kindness of children, and of the new hope born with each new baby.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"A child built the stable./ A little shepherd boy/ Apprenticed as a carpenter/ In his father's employ" is Bryan's (All Things Bright and Beautiful) answer to the title's question. Told in rhyming verse, this touching take on the classic nativity story finds the young carpenter seeing himself in the newborn. ("in his heart he knew:/ The babe would be a carpenter./ He'd be a shepherd too"). Bryan wields tempera and acrylic in strong strokes to evoke Bethlehem, ("A rich and verdant land") with saturated shades of primary and secondary colors, lively expressions on human and animal faces, and sweeping lines to create the impression of movement. Pleasing to the eye and to the ear. Ages 4 8.
