Gathering Sparks

The team behind Before You Were Born explains the traditional Jewish concept of tikkun olam (the repair of the world), imagining a dialogue between a grandfather and granddaughter, using a distinctive second-person voice. Swarner pictures grandfather and granddaughter gazing up at the star-spangled sky on a summer night (“Long, long ago... God sent forth ten vessels, like a fleet of ships, each carrying its cargo of light”). The ships, the grandfather explains, whose arrival would have made the world perfect, fall to pieces, leaving fragments of light for humans to gather so the vessels can be reassembled and the world put at peace. “And you asked, ‘But how can the sparks be gathered?’ And your grandfather said, ‘For every good deed you do, one of those hidden sparks rises up and a little bit of the world is repaired.’ ” There are many good things children can do to gather sparks, but loving someone, says the grandfather, is the very best. It’s theology that even the youngest can understand; Schwartz’s lulling voice and Swarner’s gentle illustrations make it seem easy and infinitely worth doing. Ages 3–8. (Aug.)