I have long enjoyed Max Lucado's ability to dribble words across a page in fresh patterns. He jolts us ever so gently and always in a way that delights our senses. That talent causes us to hear him while others, with messages just as urgent, are ignored because their sentences run together to form an uninteresting glop. Lucado, the artist, even writes prettily in the foreword to his picture book, The Oak Inside the Acorn. In that foreword he says to parents, "God prewired your infant. He scripted your toddler's strengths. He set your teen on a trajectory. God gave you an eighteen-year research project." That's good writing. And it continues into the second paragraph of the foreword. Maybe because I appreciate his voice so much and I know what he's capable of, I am disappointed with his picture book text.

Some things I liked, first. The writing is fine. It's not done in ill-fitted rhyme, at least. Lucado gains a whole star for not falling into that ruinous trap. The story is also sweet and mildly interesting. And finally, the artist has painted pretty pictures.

But the book is bland in several ways. There is no joy in the text, no fun, no magic, no music. Children love fun books. Mr. Lucado, of all people, is talented enough to give his small readers a romp worthy of their time and attention. And yet, The Oak Inside the Acorn fails to deliver.

The pictures are even worse than the text, but that's not entirely the artist's fault. What does he have to work with? We have tree and field beautifully painted. Then tree and truck, tree and truck, tree and truck. (That's not a typo. There are three consecutive tree and truck pictures.) Then broom and acorn in truck bed, tree and acorn, big tree/little tree, big tree/little tree, little tree/farmer's hands, little tree/farmer/house, little tree/flowers . . . you get the picture (groan). How many ways can you paint a silly tree and expect kids to give a hoot? Still, Angelini might have put in some ants or frogs in the truck bed with the acorn. Something to make the pictures more interesting. On page after page, there is simply nothing in the pictures to excite a child. So why bother having a picture book?

There are a couple of pages where the illustrations are done in panels which show time passing. Those were exciting pages. Finally something for a kid to study and wonder over.

The story, I thought, was not too exciting. The end didn't have much punch. I don't see why the girl was crying in the first place and I don’t know how the little acorn hitting her made her get the message God was sending her through the tree, but the message itself was OK: Grow up and be the person God wants you to be, we are all unique, we all have a purpose. Not a bad thing to teach a child.

I give the book three stars because it's not junk. It's glossy and it looks pleasing and I can see a grandmother reading it to a grandchild and feeling good about the lesson. It is not a book the kids will beg for a second time, though. In fact, they may not sit through the first reading.

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Copyright © 2005 Sally Apokedak