Temporin's (Treasury of Angel Stories
) soft watercolors mirror the personality of the 14th-century saint Francis of Assisi. Sparse scenes of medieval Tuscany, created with gentle black outlines and a muted palette, refuse to clamor for attention. However, the subtle illustrations can seem incongruous when the subject is Francis's more rowdy and adventure-seeking youth. Well-known vignettes (the sermon to the birds, his taming of the wolf of Gubbio, etc.) are detailed in short, chronological chapters and narrated in descriptive, often flowery prose (“He sat pressed into his new saddle, his long coat of chain mail hanging like a dead weight from his shoulders”; “merry stars sparkled in the sky as the friars sang hymns of praise to the creator of all things”). Denham (Stories of the Saints
) successfully portrays the tension between Francis and his wealthy merchant father, though the absence of dates, sources and author notes makes it hard for a newcomer to separate fact from legend. Ages 5–up. (Apr.)
