Daughters of Fire: Heroines of the Bible

by Fran Manushkin, Uri Shulevitz (Illustrator)

Biblical stories of valorous women--from Eve to Yael--have helped shape the human character and spirit. Rarely, though, has the essence of these heroines been revealed as poignantly as it is in Daughters of Fire.

Fran Manushkin’s sensitive retellings of stories from the Bible and Jewish tradition portray strength and honor, but also jealousy and fear, and Caldecott Medalist Uri Shulevitz’s heroic illustrations highlight the bold, passionate essence of each woman and her world. The result is a collection of tales with heroines who are, above all, human.

Genres: Picture Books

76 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2001

About the author

Fran Manushkin is the author of more than fifty books for children, including the Katie Woo series; Big Girl Panties, illustrated by Valeria Petrone; Big Sisters Are the Best, illustrated by Kirsten Richards; The Tushy Book, illustrated by Tracy Dockray; and Baby, Come Out!, illustrated by Ronald Himler and translated into eight languages. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Kayla]

there weren't as many pictures as I would have liked. it was a good read, but the interpretations by the author might have been a little liberal.

[karenbee]

I picked up Daughters of Fire because I was curious whether there'd be anyone I didn't recognize in there, since the writer included heroines from the Jewish tradition, and I was raised IFB. I knew most of the stories, but sometimes the details were a little different than the versions I'd learned, so I enjoyed playing spot-the-difference. A few stories were new to me, so those were interesting as well.

The illustrations weren't my cup of tea and the writing was more simplistic than I like, but this is meant for very young audiences, so that's not a fault of the book, just my personal preference.

I was bothered by Manushkin's nonchalance toward some pretty terrible behavior on the part of the "heroines" or their spouses, mostly (but not only) behavior concerning servants/handmaids. I guess that comes with the source material, but it still made me cringe.

[Tasha]

Great read! I wanted to start back reading Bible stories and decided to start with children books! I enjoyed all of the stories and looked forward to reading each chapter.

[Robert Ellington]

Interesting and informative. I never knew about the background of Rosh Hodesh!

[April Helms]

This is a really nice collection of short stories about the famous women in the Bible. There's aren't a lot of illustrations, and most are fairly simple, but well done. The stories seem best for a read-to for younger children, and independent reading for older grade school. Or, for someone like me interested in a general history. The stories are easy to follow and well-written. Very enjoyable, all in all. The illustrator won a Calecott honor this year, and I stumbled across this book when looking for it. Call it a happy accident!

[Jessica Bennett]

I thought this book was very informative. It discusses all the heroines of the bible. The text is simple enough that 6th and up could read this and learn from it. It is in chapter form with each chapter being a different character. The stories are detailed but not too long.

[Nicki]

This book could be so good, but it is filled with extrapolations and "extra details" that are not in the Bible. It gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I read these altered versions of God's word. I couldn't even finish it.

[Megan Ekins]

It is the size of a childrens book, with big pictures but it is not the kind of book any child could read, it is not really a capture your attention book.

[Brandy Gilbertson]

This book has a lot of words and is definitely for an older children's audience. The book tells the stories of honorable women from the Hebrew Bible.

*Book from text

[Elizabeth]

I don't love all of the author's interpretations, but of course that comes with the territory of doing interpretation -- we don't all agree on everything, that's why there's a wide variety of commentary and midrash.

While I think she whitewashes Sarah's treatment of Hagar, for example, I do think her reconciliation of Leah and Rachel is nice. And I appreciate her highlighting women who we often don't notice but who really are there in the text (from "The Women of the Exodus" and "The Women in the Wilderness" to "Deborah and Yael" and "Hannah").

I expect most readers would make their way through this book over the course of multiple sittings, but the narrative also consciously threads the stories together -- they are, of course, all part of the long narrative history of the people Israel, but the narrative helps to remind us of this by intentionally referring to preceding or upcoming stories, discouraging us from thinking of them as unrelated vignettes.