Young Heroes of the Bible - Hardcover

Douglas, Kirk

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689814917 ISBN 13: 9780689814914

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1999

Synopsis

Actor Kirk Douglas provides his favorite stories about heroic Biblical figures, including Rebecca, Joseph, and Miriam.

About this title

About the Author:

Kirk Douglas has been a Hollywood legend for over four decades. In a career encompassing more than eighty films, he has earned an Academy Award for a lifetime of achievement and three Academy Award nominations -- for Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful, and Lust for Life. As an independent producer, he has brought to the screen classics like Paths of Glory, The Vikings, Spartacus, Lonely Are the Brave, and Seven Days in May. His autobiographies, Climbing the Mountain: My Search for Meaning and The Ragman's Son, and his three novels, Dance with the Devil, The Gift, and Last Tango in Brooklyn, won praise from critics and became international best-sellers. His first book written for children was The Broken Mirror.

From Publishers Weekly:

If ever a book seemed designed to appeal to grandparents, this is it, from the fancy jacket with its solemn inset illustration of David to the octogenarian celebrity author. Happily, kids should like it, too. Douglas proves himself a much better storyteller here than in his previous children's work, The Broken Mirror, perhaps because this time he is working from a scriptAaccounts from the Bible and Midrash of the childhood deeds of Abraham, Rebecca, Joseph, Miriam and David. Douglas keeps the characters appealingly lifelike even as he drives home their extraordinary contributions and virtues. He treats the biblical setting to contemporary embellishments that make the stories more accessible. For example, when Abraham poses skeptical questions about idols, his teacher tells him, "Keep quiet, or you will have to stay after school." (Similarly, Abraham's father, the owner of the biggest idol shop in Ur, has a sign reading, "We have a god for every occasion"). The book does have flaws. Douglas sometimes plays a little too obviously to the audience ("The kids in the Bible were cool. They did great things and without any help from adults either"). There are also a few insipid moments (e.g., the author gives the origins of the name God as "the word 'good' with an o left out"). But on balance the writing is sturdy, and the generalized Judeo-Christian delivery will keep the audience wide. Ages 8-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0689814917
• ISBN 13: 9780689814914
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144
• Illustrator: Lee Dom