cover image The Miracle Child: A Story from Ethiopia

The Miracle Child: A Story from Ethiopia

Elizabeth Laird. Holt McDougal, $12.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-03-006052-6

Abba Aregawi Wolde Gabriel is a priest of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in England who contributed to Laird's enthralling account of St. Tekla Haymanot, a revered hero of his people since the 13th century. Illustrating the book are glorious paintings, faithfully reproduced from an illuminated manuscript on which an unknown monk recorded the saint's miracles. The regal colors, the expressions that animate the people in the pictures, proclaim the artist of the 1700s as a man with great gifts dedicated to religious works and, particularly, to St. Tekla Hayamonot. There are moving scenes of the holy person frustrating evil, being saved from danger by the Archangel Michael, healing the sick, reviving the dead and bringing food to his starving people when Ethiopia suffered from famine as it does today. The author and publisher will donate profits from the book to Ethiopian famine relief groups. (All ages)