Saints Among the Animals - Hardcover

Cynthia Zarin is a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine and an Artist-in-Residence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City.

She is the author of several books of poetry and four picture books for children: Rose and Sebastian; What Do You See When You Shut Your Eyes?; Wallace Hoskins, the Boy Who Grew Down; and Albert, the Dog Who Liked to Ride in Taxis. She lives with her family in Manhattan.

Leonid Gore moved to the U.S. from his native Russia in 1991. He has illustrated The Sugar Child, The Malachite Palace, Sleeping Boy, Who Was Born This Special Day?, The Secret of the Great Houdini, The Princess Mouse, and, most recently, Saints Among the Animals for Atheneum. He is also the author and illustrator of Danny's First Snow. Mr. Gore lives with his wife and daughter in Oakland, New Jersey, where monarchs are occasionally sighted.

Grade 3–5—Inspired by Margaret Ward Cole's classic book of the same title, Zarin retells 10 stories that chronicle the interactions of holy men and women with an eclectic menagerie of wild creatures. Saint Canice befriends a patient stag that allows him to use its antlers as a bookstand, Saint Jerome champions a misunderstood lion, and Saint Brendan is rescued at sea by a great whale. Two women are represented: Saint Hilda saves her fellow sisters from an influx of snakes, and Saint Werburge prevents a flock of greedy geese from gobbling up all of the seeds planted in farmland. The majority of the tales are set in ancient England or Ireland. Written in the conversational style of a storyteller, the selections contain lovely descriptions of the natural settings in which the saints and the animals coexist, but in moments of extreme emotion they tend to be slightly overwritten. Each legend is accompanied by a somber charcoal illustration depicting the saint and the featured animal, framed by a decorative border. Brief biographies appear at the end of the volume. Brother Wolf, Sister Sparrow: Stories about Saints and Animals (Holiday House, 2003), retold by Eric A. Kimmel, is a similar, but more colorful, collection that also includes the feast day, emblem, and country of origin for each saint.—Linda L. Walkins, Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Brighton, MA
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