This snazzy-looking picture book travels back to 1236 to address a topic that couldn't be more timely: the importance of respect and cooperation among people of different faiths. Jungman (Vlad the Drac
) whisks readers to Cordoba, "the most beautiful city in the world," and home to a particularly splendid mosque with even more splendid gardens. Fowles (The Bachelor and the Bean
) depicts the gardens in a jewel-toned palette, the trees brightly adorned with stylized fruits and foliage, the people in arrestingly patterned clothing, the perspectives just flattened enough to recall the period setting. Three roguish boys—one Muslim, one Jewish, one Christian—play pranks together in the gardens but are caught by the Caliph, who teaches them a lesson by assigning them to work there. Over the course of their sentence they explore the mosque and agree that it is truly "a house of God." Many years later, when all three are adults, Christians conquer Cordoba (in a battle scene choreographed like a medieval painting, grand and bloodless), and the Christian king decrees that the mosque must be destroyed. The three friends lobby the king together, speaking on behalf of the city's three religious populations, and win the day. If Fowles doesn't quite convey the architectural majesty of the mosque at Cordoba, she generates a visual excitement strong enough to balance the implicit lesson in the text and to kindle the interest of the target audience. Ages 4-7. (Mar.)
