Eve and Adam and their Very First Day

KIRKUS STARRED REVIEW  Everything is completely new and unknown on the first day of human existence. Eve’s first day finds her thankful and unafraid. Not even the “brilliant ball of yellow burning above” worries her. She notices a two-legged creature, who seems friendly and calls himself Adam. Together they give names to everything they see. Eve considers Adam’s ideas for names—“dog,” “cat,” “ant”—somewhat boring, while hers are more interesting: “nightingale” and “strawberry,” for instance. Perhaps it’s because God had some practice before he made her. Eve emerges as the more dominant of the two, but she finds Adam kind and beautiful. Relying on faith—and each other—the pair deal with the strangeness of everything, from rain to sundown and night to the miracle of sunrise on their second day. The familiar tale is told in the ancient Jewish tradition of midrash, a way of interpreting and enriching Bible stories. Kimmelman employs soaring, highly descriptive language imbued with gentle humor, imagination, wonder, and awe, brought to vivid life by Avgustinovich’s lush artwork. The brown-skinned duo are nude but covered up by Eve’s thick black hair and, in Adam’s case, a strategically placed leaf. Never demanding belief or denying science, this is a fresh take on the oldest interpretation of the beginning. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Gloriously beautiful and tender. (author’s note) (Religious picture book. 4-9)  --KIRKUS REVIEWS Leslie Kim­mel­man and Iri­na Avgusti­novich tell the sto­ry of Adam and Eve — but this time, the tale is recount­ed from Eve’s point of view as she encoun­ters God’s cre­ations for the first time. She names the ani­mals and all nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­na with her own cre­ative touch and encour­ages Adam to do the same. She keeps him calm and reas­sures him with opti­mism when they expe­ri­ence their first fright­en­ing sun­set and night­fall, when they are unsure whether there will be a sec­ond day of light. Eve’s deter­mi­na­tion to face the future with hope will inspire readers. The mag­nif­i­cent col­or illus­tra­tions show the Gar­den of Eden in all its lush and lav­ish abun­dance. There is no snake in this gar­den — just the beau­ty of new expe­ri­ences and an appre­ci­a­tion of the world’s awe-inspir­ing wonder. An author’s note to this mod­ern midrash teach­es young read­ers that while new things can be scary and uncom­fort­able, hav­ing faith in ​“your­self, in the peo­ple around you, or in God” can help you cope with life’s chal­lenges and uncer­tain­ties, and give you the con­fi­dence to antic­i­pate what tomor­row may bring.  --JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL