Young Mary of Nazareth - Hardcover

Mayer, Marianna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688140610 ISBN 13: 9780688140618

Publisher: Morrow Junior, 1998

Synopsis

The author of Pegasus recounts the life of the Virgin Mary, from her own birth through her early years and education at the Temple, to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

About this title

About the Author:

Marianna Mayer lives in Roxbury, Connecticut.

"I see folktales and myths as humankind's first stories," says Marianna Mayer. "They are a kind of collective dreaming, filled with timeless symbols and images we can all relate to, regardless of age or culture. And, much as an oyster must be disturbed by a grain of sand in order for the pearl to be created, I often choose to retell stories in which I find unresolved fragments that are somehow perplexing to me."

Though widely known as a children's book writer, Marianna Mayer's early education focused on visual art. "It seems to me there was never a time when I didn't want to be an artist, " she says. "I liked to tell stories with pictures and compose music. My sister and I put on plays made up from my stories. And then I decided to start writing a book, at the age of nine." She published her first book at the age of nineteen. After college, she studied painting at the Art Students League in New York City. Her experiences as an artist provided many images that she began to incorporate into writing. Gradually, she shifted to the written word as a medium of expression. She explains, "I began to feel more freedom when using words as my paints and plots as my canvases.

"While in the midst of a writing project, I live so much in my mind that what takes place in my imagination becomes quite real to me. I try to become part of the culture of a particular tale as much as possible. While working on Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave, for example, I read all I could about Russia. What I learned about Slavic mythology helped to deepen my understanding of the story. I listened to Russian music, ate Russian food (which I love!), and tried in other small ways to enter into the essence of that culture."

"My writing is deeply personal. First and foremost I write for the child who still lives within me. Then to the child in others, whether that child resides in a young person or an adult. I'm striving to reach out to that spirit of wonder within us all. The stories I was told as a child, those half-remembered folktales and myths, have become the foundation for what I continue to work on in my books. The sense of hope that books instilled in me as a child saw me through many difficult times. Because of this, I choose characters who face overwhelming odds but triumph through courage and perseverance. Similarly, myth allows a child to believe in his or her own dreams and can instill a boundless hope for the future."

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 6-Happily for readers, if unhappily for struggling artists, several recent picture books on myths and religious figures utilize fine-art paintings as illustrations. This very personal vision of the early life of the Virgin is the latest example. Mayer draws on apocryphal material and her own psychological insights as well as Scripture for her account of Mary's conception, birth, education, betrothal, and, finally, the birth of her son. Some touches of the miraculous gild the narrative, but for the most part the author focuses on Mary's qualities of character-in particular, her courage. A note at the end gives sources, but there is no way to sort canonical from noncanonical bits in the story. The illustrations are equally personal choices. From Mark Lancelot Symons's angelic chorus of very realistic 1920's faces featured on the book jacket onward, well-known artists (Lippi, Giotto, Titian, La Tour) accompany those who are lesser known (Salimbeni, Barocci, Ligozzi). Mayer chooses many Baroque, Pre-Raphaelite, and pre-Raphael works over the predictable High Renaissance icons. This is a book for devout, and chiefly Catholic, readers, though others may appreciate its model of a strong young woman, or its lovely reproductions.
Patricia Lothrop-Green, St. George's School, Newport, RI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Morrow Junior
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0688140610
• ISBN 13: 9780688140618
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40