Light

2008 Sydney Taylor Honor Award, Picture Books

In the beginning, there was emptiness,
like a blank canvas.

Then, in a swirl of motion, the world was created.

It was going to be finished with a special kind of light, stored in a huge jar.

But the light was so powerful it shattered the jar into millions of pieces. People were created to find the sparks of light and bring them back together so that the world would be perfect.

Artist Jane Bresken Zalben opens Jewish mystical teachings — Kabbalah — to young children in this story of creation based on a 16th century midrash by Rabbi Isaac Luria.