A Child's Book of Blessings

Illustrated with a jeweller's attention to detail and ability to attract the eye, this striking volume brings together blessings from many cultures. At the center of each elaborately paneled page stands one prayer, from the well-known Irish blessing for a journey (""May the road rise up to meet you..."") to a poem by Wendell Berry (""At night make me one/ with the darkness./ In the morning make me one/ with the light""). Baha'i, Sufi and many Native American blessings sit harmoniously alongside Jewish prayers, a Chinese benediction for the New Year and a Christmas tree blessing (""Lighting this tree, we hope in [the] promise [of Your good and holy Son]""). Dearborn's editorial choices imply a unity of spirit among a diversity of belief systems, so that her book fosters both a reverence for life's gifts and tolerance for other ways of receiving them. Whelan's (The Barefoot Book of Princesses) watercolors, in the school of Jane Ray, surround each selection with little temples of small compositions: for Elfrida Vipont's ""Dear Father, bless this day,/ And bless me too;/ Bless me in all I say/ And all I do,"" Whelan shows a child in bed under a marvelous counterpane, and builds onto that image separate pictures of small speckled roosters, children in pajamas, suns and moons, alarm clocks with hands and feet, an egg cup and a steaming mug; she binds it all together with tiny detailed borders. The art invites scrutiny, luring readers back again and again to the rewards of the text. Ages 4-up. (Oct.)