Why do humans have an indentation above their upper lip? Schwartz (The Diamond Tree
) offers a lyrical explanation based on a midrash (a "Rabbinic legend," in Schwartz's words) published in Constantinople in 1522. An opening image shows a father holding a child, who asks for a favorite story "about before I was born." The parent explains that, at the appointed time, the angel Lailah, pictured with leaf-shaped wings, escorts babies from "the Treasury of Souls" in heaven to their new home in their mothers' wombs. As the babies grow, Lailah reads from the Book of Secrets, and teaches her charges "all the secrets in the world"—the languages of animals, the events of the past and future, and "most of all, she told... many good stories." At birth, Lailah puts her finger to the babies' lips, and all this knowledge becomes the soul's secret. "But don't worry," says the father reassuringly, "you have the rest of your life to learn all those wondrous secrets again." Swarner's (the Yiddish Wisdom series) gauzy textures and curvilinear stylings bring to mind a combination of Marc Chagall and Jean Charlot. But while many of the mixed-media pictures exude a poignant prettiness, they seem more fairytale-like than spiritual and lack a driving narrative power. Yet the mysticism takes on a coziness in the artwork, making this is a sweet exegesis of an intriguing phenomenon. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)
