Love Is...

For thousands of years, people the world over have answered this question by turning to Saint Paul the apostle and his words on love for the early followers of Christ. Now celebrated illustrator Wendy Anderson Halperin lends her own artistic vision to Paul's immortal words and reasserts his message -- that the love we express can best be seen in what we do and say -- for generations to come.

For thousands of years, people the world over have answered this question by turning to Saint Paul the apostle and his words cataloging the properties of love for the early followers of Christ. Now, celebrated illustrator Wendy Anderson Halperin lends her own artistic vision to Paul's immortal words and reasserts his message—that the love we express can best be seen in our attitudes and actions—for generations to come.

Publishers Weekly

Adapting the apostle Paul's definitions of love in I Corinthians 13, Halperin (Hunting the White Cow) combines Paul's words with an intricate mosaic of watercolor-and-pencil vignettes to create a memorable, unusually thoughtful picture book. A simple line of text (e.g., "Love is... patient. Love is kind") runs across the bottom of each spread; above, Halperin's artwork appears in small, carefully arranged panels, akin to the pieces of a stained glass window. On each left-hand page, her panels depict people acting without love (ballplayers bicker; a pedestrian ignores a homeless man). The right-hand pages show the same people performing acts of kindness, touched by the joy love brings (a child stands at bat, a woman delivers meals-on-wheels). Other interpretations are more subtle. A panel on the spread illustrating "Love... does not insist on its own way" follows the metamorphosis of egg to caterpillar to butterfly; the spread for "Love... believes all things" is bordered by a row of crayons, pictures of seed packets, tools ranging from microscope to eggbeaters, and musical instruments. Some panels are reserved for continuing stories: as the pages progress, a house on the left becomes increasingly dilapidated, while on the right a sculptor transforms a block of marble into an enduring work of art (it's Michelangelo and his David). Those who pore over the pictures (and readers will want to) will find references to Aesop, Cinderella, the Three Little Pigs and more. With her thought-provoking, insightful visual examples, Halperin does an outstanding job of relating biblical text to contemporary, everyday life. All ages. (Jan.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Of all the saints mentioned in the New Testament, the apostle Paul (or Saint Paul) is the one about which historians know the most. Originally named Saul, he was born into a wealthy Hebrew family in the ancient city of Tarsus, and though he was the son of a Roman citizen, he underwent a strict Hebrew upbringing that included being educated in Jerusalem. Initially he was a passionate persecutor of the early followers of Christ, but then he underwent his own conversion to the budding Christian movement and changed his name from Saul to Paul. Of the twenty-seven books found in the New Testament, fourteen are ascribed to him. Among them is I Corinthians where "The Way of Love" is found.