The World Needs Beautiful Things

by Leah Rachel Berkowitz, Daniele Fabbri (Illustrator)

Overview

Young Bezalel is different from the other Israelite slaves in Egypt. He loves to collect stones, bugs, bits of string—these all seem beautiful to him. He keeps everything in his Beautiful Things Box and takes it with him everywhere. As the Israelites wander in the desert, God asks them to build a very special house—and Bezalel may be the only one who can create something beautiful enough to honor God.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541530355
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/01/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	53 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	7 - 8 Years

About the Author

Rabbi Leah Rachel Berkowitz is a graduate of Brandeis University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She has written extensively for adults and teens about Judaism, spirituality, and women's experiences. She lives in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Daniele Fabbri is an award-winning illustrator and animator with illustration projects in both Europe and the United States. He lives in northern Italy.

Editorial Reviews

11/19/2018
The humble protagonist in this allegorical story is based on Bezalel, who, in the book of Exodus, is selected by God to design the ark. Bezalel—whom Fabbri renders with bushy eyebrows, lively curls, and an expression of sheer wonder—is a collector of discarded objects, insisting that “each of these things is beautiful in its own way, and the world needs beautiful things.” After being freed by the Pharaoh, Bezalel and the Israelites leave Egypt, crossing the Red Sea and desert. When God requests that the Israelites make a house made of “beautiful things,” God is struck by Bezalel’s sense for beauty. Fabbri’s paintings—featuring a sweeping desert landscape, motifs of fire and water, and statuesque figures in trailing robes—enrich Berkowitz’s story of a lesser-known biblical character. Ages 3–8. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Bezalel and the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. But young Bezalel had an eye for beauty and loved to collect pretty things like shiny stones and colored strings, and place them into his 'Beautiful Things Box.' When it’s time to escape Egypt and wander through the desert, he takes along his precious box, saying, 'The world needs beautiful things,' and he collects more along the way to Eretz Yisrael. One day, Moses tells the people that 'God wants us to build a house of beautiful things' called a mishkan, a place for God to dwell. Bezalel is chosen to design the house of God because he understands how the earth can provide beautiful things, such as wood from desert trees, blossoms from prickly cactus and sparkly stones from rock. Eventually, Bezalel (whose name means 'in God’s shadow') is responsible for building the 'biggest Beautiful Things Box ever' with the help of the other Israelites. This story is taken from the book of Exodus. It is enhanced by lovely full-color illustrations by a well-known Italian illustrator and animator."―Jewish Journal

From the Publisher

2018-06-25
A young boy's love for nature reminds the adults around him to appreciate the simpler things.Bezalel is a collector. He is also one of Pharaoh's slaves in ancient Egypt. He often stops his work to pick up stones, bugs' fallen wings, and other things from nature that others see as trash. When the slaves are freed, Bezalel brings his Beautiful Things Box with him and continues to fill it as they journey away from Egypt. When the Israelites stop in the desert and God asks Moses to build a mishkan, it is Bezalel who has the objects and the eye for finding more that allow them to make God's sanctuary on Earth beautiful. With the exception of spreads depicting the Israelites' nighttime travel through the desert, illustrations are earth-toned, with immersive full-bleeds and occasional vignettes. Bezalel is almost always set off, as if to depict how different he is from others. Indeed, he could be interpreted as being on the autism spectrum, an interpretation also implied by the author's note that children like Bezalel "look different or act differently from others." Readers unfamiliar with the story of the Jews' exodus from Egypt may find it difficult to understand the beginning of the story, as Bezalel and the other Jews toil, and those who are familiar with it may find the one-sentence announcement of freedom insufficiently attentive of the moment.An interesting take on biblical stories and autism stories that may struggle to find an audience. (Picture book/religion. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews