If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem - Hardcover

Wolf, Bernard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525457380 ISBN 13: 9780525457381

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, 1998

Synopsis

A compelling combination of breathtaking photographs and the history, archaeology, and religion of Jerusalem celebrates the extraordinary inhabitants, landmarks, and cultural diversity of this holy city.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 5 Up-The photos dominating Wolf's book are crisp, detailed, and revealing. Portraits and architecture, long shots and close-ups, pale buff and bright with color, they satisfy the senses and stimulate viewers' curiosity. Alas, the text too often fails to address the questions they raise. There are no real captions or locations listed at the back. Shots of a model of Herod's city, identified in a single sentence in a dense double-column of small type on the preceding page, look like full-scale pictures of surviving sites. Even when the narrative corresponds more closely to nearby photos, confusing writing can obscure the point. There are some annoying grammatical quirks (the many split infinitives), but other phrasing is seriously misleading. The sentence, "Ten of the tribes who settled in the north called this land Israel" clearly implies that there were more than 10 northern tribes. The author leaps from British rule in 1917 to the 1967 war with no mention of Israel's independence; Joseph "led the Hebrews into Egypt," implies that the whole nation rather than a small percentage was exiled; and so on. The book's layout is elegant but not accessible: it is difficult to extract information without close attention to the tightly spaced print. What a pity that such beautiful pictures did not elicit more exacting information. As it is, the usefulness of this book is severely diminished by its inadequate text, absence of maps, and omission of bibliography.
Patricia Lothrop-Green, St. George's School, Newport, RI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Gr. 4^-7. Wolf turns his sharp photographer's eye on the eternal city of Jerusalem and brings it alive for readers. Starting with the origins of Jerusalem, Wolf follows the city through its rises and falls, and examines the religions that have fought over it, loved it, and died to keep it their own. The ancient history part of the text is long but involving; Wolf has a knack for focusing on just the details that will capture children's imaginations. His wonderfully crisp photographs (which include pictures of a model of Herod's city on display in Jerusalem) expand the text, though sometimes captions might have been helpful. The historical section branches off into a discussion of the three religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, that hold Jerusalem sacred, and in a balanced way discusses the problems these groups have had living together. Pictures of street scenes show that, despite the controversies, life goes on. An involving photo essay. Ilene Cooper

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0525457380
• ISBN 13: 9780525457381
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 64
• Illustrator: Wolf Bernard