Miri­am in the Desert is a superb weav­ing of leg­end and Tal­mud cre­at­ing access for any age read­er into the jour­ney that took the Jews across the desert. Jules presents Miri­am, the sis­ter of Moses, as a con­stant source of patience, lov­ing­ness and guid­ance: a voice of wis­dom. Per­haps, for a small child, a grandmother’s voice. Beza­lel, Miriam’s grand­son nar­rates the sto­ry of their jour­ney through his mem­o­ries of his grandmother’s assur­ances to the Peo­ple of Israel. Her belief in the mir­a­cles that G‑d con­tin­u­al­ly deliv­ered and her abil­i­ty to encour­age and calm the peo­ple through their tri­als are tes­ti­mo­ny to her faith. Each chal­lenge that is brought forth, bit­ter water, lack of food, lack of know­ing is meet with her pos­i­tive thought, which she shares with her peo­ple. Where there is dif­fi­cul­ty, she sees oppor­tu­ni­ty for growth through faith and along the way her grand­son uses these chal­lenges to grow into an artist. He draws both phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly from the desert tri­als and learns to carve his artis­tic nature out of the strengths of this Jew­ish jour­ney. Beza­lel learns to see the women’s scarves, as swirling water, the sand becomes his can­vas, sticks and stones his artist tools. Moses returns with the Tablets and Miri­am tells Beza­lel that he has been cho­sen to build the Ark of the Covenant; his desert jour­ney has enabled him to artis­ti­cal­ly rep­re­sent the future of the Jew­ish Peo­ple. Jules’ mar­velous visu­al text and a rhyming song are per­fect­ly com­pli­ment­ed by Ugliano’s engag­ing illus­tra­tions. Grades K – 3.