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A Telling Time was chosen for the 2006 White Raven collection
which was displayed at the Bologna Bookfairgiven and also given "special mention"
which draws attention to those books "of international interest that deserve a wider
reception on account of their universal theme and/or their exceptional and innovative
artistic and literary style and design and whose content is found to contribute to an
international understanding among cultures and people." The collection will be housed
at the Intenational Youth Library in Munich which houses the world's largest collection of
children's books from around the world. The White Ravens 2006 collection contains 250 titles
in 32 languages from 47 countries. Only 14 books were given "special mention" this year. A catalogue
is available from www.ijb.de
A Telling Time is nominated for the 2005-2006 Chocolate Lily Book Awards
This tale is told in three time-frames. On the eve of the Festival of Purim, a grandmother tells her granddaughter how, as a little girl, she heard the story of Queen Esther from her family rabbi. This was in 1939, in Nazi-occupied Vienna, on the eve of WWII. Soon after the rabbi begins the story of the brave queen, soldiers come to arrest him. The young girl begs for the rabbi to finish his story, and the soldiers allow him to do so. When the tale is over, the soldiers permit him to send the children home. But when the children turn to wave goodbye, the rabbi had vanished in the snowflakes, safe from harm, saved by the miracle of a story from long ago. The illustrations by Kathryn Shoemaker perfectly highlight the story's message of hope.
Kathryn Shoemaker is an established illustrator who has illustrated over 20 books for children, including My Animal Friends and Floyd the Flamingo and his Flock of Friends, both for Tradewind Books. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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