In a dig­ni­fied small pic­ture book, nar­ra­tive and land­scape blend lyri­cal­ly to tell the sto­ry of how God came to choose Mount Sinai as the place to give the Ten Com­mand­ments. Rosen­stock adapt­ed this ancient leg­end of ​“The Con­test of the Moun­tains” from the Midrash Bereshit Rab­bah. Peo­ple have not been treat­ing each oth­er well, and God wants to give them rules to live by. Each moun­tain steps for­ward to claim the hon­or. Mount Carmel brags about its lush­ness; Mount Her­man boasts about the pop­u­lar­i­ty of its peaks and streams; Mount Tabor claims a place in his­to­ry for ris­ing above the flood­wa­ters. After oth­ers, too, trum­pet their supe­ri­or­i­ty, God selects rocky Mount Sinai for humbly stay­ing out of the fray and trust­ing God to make the deci­sion. Lan­guage is direct and chis­eled. Though the moun­tains are per­son­i­fied in words, they are always moun­tains in the illus­tra­tions, grand­ly paint­ed in a pas­tel palette that bleeds to the edges of dou­ble-page spreads. In some, insets frame the actions of peo­ple. Sources are giv­en. All in all a sol­id choice. For ages 3 – 7.