Today, I'm reviewing a children's picture book by Rachel Thoene. The Vase of Many Colors is a sweet story about a little girl and her grandmother that live in a picturesque little town. The girl is a happy child full of boundless energy that has her always dancing and twirling, despite grandma's warnings to be more careful. Then one day, the little girl knocks over the colorful vase and breaks it. Grandma, gathers the shattered pieces and takes them to a small shed in the back of their cottage. There she pours the broken glass into a pan and adds all the other little glass things that the girl has broken over the years. She melts it, and then dancing and twirling about, she blows the molten glass into a new beautiful vase.
It's a beautiful story. Love and forgiveness plain on both the surface and the subtext. Just as Grandma makes something beautiful out of all the broken things, so does Jesus when we give him our broken hearts.
I do think that the illustrations could have been better, but that's probably more of a personal preference. I would love to have seen a more realistic representation done in acrylics or oils. However, the illustrations don't detract from the story at all and small children will still enjoy the bright colors and sense of movement in the images.
Rachel Thoene obviously inherited her family's talent for the written word. I hope this is the first of many books for her. It has the potential to be a family classic and would make a great gift.
Enjoy!
A.
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