The Little Match Girl

The reason I wanted to read this book is because two people I love dearly have mentioned the name in conversation and so the book has been sort of logged in the back of my mind. After reading it, I realized that it is the artwork that makes this book stand out from other books. The paintings are done by Jerry Pinkney and are truly captivating and beautiful. There isn't a single face in the story book that isn't what I would call 'perfect' and fitting. The images of the family on the first page are my favorite. The apathetic and harassing father towering over the children as they bundle flowers, the dutiful older sister, pestering younger brother and gracious little match girl all paint such a real picture of the time. Jerry Pinkney writes on the  dedication page of the book that photographs from the early 20th century of children peddling flowers were the catalyst for his art. He states that "their faces stayed with me and haunt my visual memory." It was as if the children in those images were beckoning him to be heard, knowing he had the talent to tell their story well. The images of the little match girl are truly haunting, but I like what Jerry Pinkney did with these images. He took something terrible and infused it with hope. The little girl died, but she went to a place far better than anyplace in this world. Even if the rich people in the story were too busy to notice the dying girl, God did not overlook her, the One who executes justice for the oppressed (Psalm 146:7).