Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Decades of turning myth into gorgeously imaged picture books culminates in McDermott's powerful rendering of the creation story.  He boldly speaks in the voice of the Creator: "I was before time. I was everywhere. . . . Then I breathed light into the dark." The drumbeat of creation goes on, dividing the mists "sweet and salt" and bringing the earth out of the sea, lights in the heavens to mark the seasons, birds and fish, animals moving over the earth, and man and woman. The language, rooted not only in Genesis of the Hebrew Bible but in a muscular familiarity with many other creation myths, thunders and rolls in perfect counterpoint to the astonishing images.  Inspired, he says in an author's note, by Japanese hand-made mulberry-bark papers, he uses gesso, fabric, and paint to create strongly textured surfaces both beautifully abstract and utterly concrete. The sun fills a page and spills over to the next; the blue moon is surrounded by a halo of stars; below both, an arc of growing things from palm frond to frozen branch marks the turn of time.  Accessible to small children but resonant enough for older ones, reverent and magnificent.

(Picture book/nonfiction. 4-10)

Publishers Weekly • August 4, 2003

Caldecott Medalist McDermott (Arrow to the Sun) melds echoes of Genesis and other sources with his own poetic imagery for a lyrical, mystical Creation tale told in the first person, as he puts it in an author’s note, “The voice of the story is an inner one...a spark ignited within us all.” That narrative voice begins, “I was before time.  I was everywhere. There was nothing. I was there. My spirit moved over the deep. I floated in darkness.” Simple, restrained and elegiac, the text accompanies a stunning series of color-saturated, densely textured gesso and fabric paintings that play out on dramatic black backgrounds. McDermott visually tracks the arc of Creation via the gradual introduction of pigment on the pages, beginning with neutral shades of gray, on through aquas and mossy greens for the sea and the earth, and intensifying the compositions with swirls of orange and plum and yellow and blue for the sun and stars (“I put shining lights in  heaven”), then reds and emerald and browns added for the birds and the beasts. Fluid shapes take form at the same time, with the circle of earth repeated in rounded swirls and graceful lines that underpin the dreamy visual images.  Masterfully executed, this will kindle and fuel much thought. 

Ages 5-up.  (Sept)

Horn Book Magazine • September/October 2003 

Citing the inspiration of creation myths from many cultures (“these words and images grew out of my desire to cast in a new light the often-told and much beloved story...and to welcome everyone...to enter into this ancient mystery with an open heart”), McDermott retells the first chapter of Genesis. With quiet dignity, the deity narrates: “There was nothing. I was there. I moved over the deep.”  The large, square book opens to generous horizontal spreads, shadowed dark giving way to textured gray and, as earth begins to support life and heaven’s lights are differentiated, brighter and brighter color - grass green, sun gold, the brilliant plumages of tropical birds, the saturated blues and greens of the sea. Both language and  art are distinguished by a powerful simplicity, appropriate to the story itself and to younger children. The conclusion strikes a cautionary note: “Out of myself I brought man and woman...they would be the keepers of all this beauty.” That beauty - of the sky, the earth, and all its creatures - is presented in a human-centered spiral in stained-glass colors, eloquently connoting the interdependence of all things. This is a beautiful book, one that - as McDermott intended - renders the story both personal and universal; and if the reminder that we’d do better to see ourselves as keepers, rather than masters, strikes a contemporary note, it’s also salutary. 

-- J.R.L.

School Library Journal • September 2003 

McDermott casts the story of creation in strong poetic text and sweeping vibrant views.  A nebulous comet like swirl fills the black opening vista. "I was before time. I was everywhere. There was nothing.  I was there."! Dramatic shifts of somber color mark the first few abstract scenes. Then they burst into deep tones of orange, blue, green, and brown against black as life-forms fill the void.  The use of gesso and fabric lends a rich texture to the bold compositions.  The circular dimensions of Earth, Sun, and Moon are echoed in the rolling sweep of heavens, seasons, and great bands of animal life - soaring birds and the creatures swimming in the sea, crawling in the grass, and moving over the land. Then, in spare form, man and woman face a rainbow arc and the Sun.  "I gave my gifts to them.  They would be the keepers of all this beauty."  In a summation, the creatures swirl again around the small, dancing figures of the woman and man filling an earthen ball!  Finally, an embryonic figure in a small orange orb announces emphatically, "I am all this. !All this I AM." Sumptuous, rhythmic, and mystical, this book is arresting and evocative. Each page commands and absorbs readers' attention, though the large, square volume, once opened, is somewhat awkward to handle.  An author's note makes broad reference to Eastern and European religious traditions as well as the Hebrew Bible.  Readers of many ages and philosophical persuasions will find much to savor in this universal episode.

-- Margaret Bush
Simmons College, Boston.

Booklist • September 1, 2003 

Lately occupied with trickster tales from around the world, author-illustrator McDermott here tells of the first and greatest sleight of hand, the creation of the universe. Drawing on Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 of the Hebrew Bible, as he says in an author’s note, “with an eye toward its antecedents in the Near East,” McDermott uses the rich textures of his gesso-and-fabric paintings and a suitably wide color spectrum (with a Mexican tint) to make this grand abstraction come alive. Swirling with activity, the book will appeal to young readers and listeners who like to think big. As the narrator puts it at the start, “I was before time. I was everywhere. There was nothing. I was there.” Darkness progresses to light to water to the earth and all its life. There are few surprises here, but McDermott’s paintings are gorgeous, particularly one in which the first bit of land emerges, a fertile island mound covered with trees, grasses, and flowers. The image, smaller and slightly altered on several subsequent spreads, becomes the basis for McDermott’s colorful parade of birds and beasts that emerge in glorious colors. “I am all this/All this I AM.” is a powerful, fitting end.

 -- Abby Nolan