God in Between - Hardcover

Sasso, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1879045869 ISBN 13: 9781879045866

Publisher: Jewish Lights, 1998

Synopsis

Nondenominational, Nonsectarian, Multicultural

From award-winning author Sandy Eisenberg Sasso comes a new story to delight children and adults of all faiths and backgrounds.

This is the magical, mythical tale of a poor village at the foot of a hill--a topsy-turvy town with no roads and no windows, where the people sneeze through tall tangled weeds and trip over rocks as big as watermelons. Surely God would help them, they decide … but how can God be found, and where should they look? They soon find that the answer is much nearer than they thought.

This story teaches that God can be found where we are: within all of us and the relationships between us.

About this title

About the Authors

Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, a parent, spiritual leader and storyteller, is the award-winning author of God's Paintbrush, In God's Name, God In Between and many other inspiring books for children of all faiths and backgrounds. The second woman to be ordained as a rabbi (1974) and the first rabbi to become a mother, she and her husband, Dennis, were the first rabbinical couple to jointly lead a congregation―Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis. They have two children, David and Debora, and three grandchildren. Sasso, who holds a doctorate in ministry, is active in the interfaith community, and has written and lectured on the renewal of spirituality and the discovery of the religious imagination in children of all faiths.

Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso is available to speak on the following topics:

• Nurturing the Spiritual Imagination of Children
• Tell Me a Story: Reading the Bible and the Religious Imagination of Children
• Filling in the Blanks: How Women Read the Bible
• Women and Judaism: A Personal Journey
• Midrash as a Tool for Spiritual Reflection

Click here to contact the author.

It is for the love of light that Sally Sweetland has been drawing and painting since childhood. Balancing fine art gallery exhibitions with illustration work, Sally holds a B.A. from U.C. Santa Cruz and a Master of Architecture from M.I.T. She lives in Waitsfield, Vermont, with her son Carson, whom Sally feels is one of God's masterpieces.

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 3-With the biblical verse 1 Kings 11-12 as a jumping-off point, Sasso presents a parable about a small town's search for God. There are no roads and none of the houses have windows so the inhabitants decide to look for God to solve their problems. At the edge of town are two homes, each with one window, and the people who live inside are called the Ones Who Could See Out Windows. This man and woman are each sent in search of God. Their journeys to a mountaintop, the deepest ocean, the driest desert, and the darkest cave are unsuccessful. Sadly, the two meet up, tell each other about their futile travels, and return home. Then they begin to help one another put in more windows and clear a road between their two houses. When the confused townspeople point out that they had never been able to do these things before, the Ones Who Could See Out Windows explain that God is "wherever we are...in the between. In between us." Parents in search of a totally nondenominational explanation of God that stresses that people should lend a helping hand to their neighbors will find this useful. The full-page pastel paintings present a multicultural community and a glowing vision of the discovery.
Susan Pine, New York Public Library
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Explaining the presence of God to children is often a monumental task, and Sasso's (God's Paintbrush) puzzling picture book isn't likely to clarify the concept. The setting is a strange town where windowless houses are scattered among tangled weeds, rocks and shrubbery The citizens become frustrated with their lot, with no view from their homes and no roads on which to explore their surroundings. One townswoman suggests that they seek God, a being rumored to be the solver of all problems. The community decides that a man and a woman who live just outside town, each in a house with a window, should lead the search. The Ones Who Could See Out Windows scour the countryside to no avail and eventually reunite, realizing that "God is wherever we are God is in the between. In between us." Young readers will likely be confused by Sasso's vague explanation and will find it very difficult to believe that the crew of contemporary-looking adults here could not organize an effort to build roads or windows. Sweetland's creamy, impressionistic paintings match the solemn mood of the text. Ages 5-10.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 4^-8. In a town with no roads and few windows live adults of various races, all of whom are in search of God to build windows and roads for them. The two residents who have a window in their homes are designated to find God. Each travels far and endures nature's extremes en route, but neither searcher is successful. Meeting after their exhausting quests, the two spend hours comforting each other before returning home. The disappointed townspeople continue to complain about their windowless, roadless existence, while the two searchers help each other build a road and put windows in each room of their homes. When asked how they accomplished this daunting feat, they replied that God helped them, for "God is in the between. In between us." Reflecting the author's weighty message with heavy brushstrokes, Sweetland thickly paints a multicultural populace in a nondescript environment. Although the message is didactic, this nonsectarian urging to look beyond oneself, to look to help others and thereby find God will be welcomed by fans of Sassov's God's Paintbrush (1995) and Prayer for the Earth (1997). Ellen Mandel

Edition details

• Publisher: Jewish Lights
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1879045869
• ISBN 13: 9781879045866
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Sweetland Sally
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32