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Worldwide Stories
First Light, First Life: A Worldwide Creation Story
In this companion to Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal , Newbery Medal winner Paul Fleischman and Julie Paschkis turn to the universal story of creation.
In the beginning there was only darkness. . . . There was fire and ice. . . . There was a single drop of milk.
Combining elements of the creation story from different traditions, this narrative weaves together one complete picture of how the world began. First Light, First Life is a celebration of the many and varied peoples of the earth, of their commonalities and their differences. It is a celebration of life.
Learn more about the creation of First Light, First Life :
In the beginning there was only darkness. . . . There was fire and ice. . . . There was a single drop of milk.
Combining elements of the creation story from different traditions, this narrative weaves together one complete picture of how the world began. First Light, First Life is a celebration of the many and varied peoples of the earth, of their commonalities and their differences. It is a celebration of life.
Learn more about the creation of First Light, First Life :
32 pages, Hardcover
First published September 20, 2016
About the author
Paul Fleischman
60 books190 followers Paul Fleischman grew up in Santa Monica, California. The son of well-known children's novelist Sid Fleischman, Paul was in the unique position of having his famous father's books read out loud to him by the author as they were being written. This experience continued throughout his childhood.
Paul followed in his father's footsteps as an author of books for young readers, and in 1982 he released the book "Graven Images", which was awarded a Newbery Honor citation.
In 1988, Paul Fleischman came out with "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices", an unusually unique collection of poetry from the perspective of insects. This book was awarded the 1989 John Newbery Medal. Factoring in Sid Fleischman's win of the John Newbery Medal in 1987 for his book "The Whipping Boy", Paul and Sid Fleischman became to this day the only father and son authors to both win the John Newbery Medal.
Paul followed in his father's footsteps as an author of books for young readers, and in 1982 he released the book "Graven Images", which was awarded a Newbery Honor citation.
In 1988, Paul Fleischman came out with "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices", an unusually unique collection of poetry from the perspective of insects. This book was awarded the 1989 John Newbery Medal. Factoring in Sid Fleischman's win of the John Newbery Medal in 1987 for his book "The Whipping Boy", Paul and Sid Fleischman became to this day the only father and son authors to both win the John Newbery Medal.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
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September 3, 2019This is really weird. Obviously it's a well intentioned project to put all these stories next to each other. And it's aimed right at parents like me who want their kids to think critically but also openly about different religions.
It ends up being really reductive of course (how could it not??). Which isn't to say it's bad, necessarily. Just that it has to cast away a lot of nuance and depth to fit pieces together in quick sentences.
There are some moves that were strange, like assigning creation stories to countries and US states of origin instead of peoples. Like the book says it's a "South Dakota" story, but it's probably Lakota? That felt bizarre to me.
Overall it really confused my kid. But my kid learned about different world perspectives on how the world started.
Yeah I dunno. I'll update if I get a better idea of what to say about this one. Right now, I'm just not sure.
It ends up being really reductive of course (how could it not??). Which isn't to say it's bad, necessarily. Just that it has to cast away a lot of nuance and depth to fit pieces together in quick sentences.
There are some moves that were strange, like assigning creation stories to countries and US states of origin instead of peoples. Like the book says it's a "South Dakota" story, but it's probably Lakota? That felt bizarre to me.
Overall it really confused my kid. But my kid learned about different world perspectives on how the world started.
Yeah I dunno. I'll update if I get a better idea of what to say about this one. Right now, I'm just not sure.
September 20, 2016
Colorfully vivid illustrations - all native people have a creation story...some may call them myths. However, there are many ties to what different people from different cultures and different parts of the world find similar in the reason why nature and humans exist. Thought-provoking and definitely a gentle way to share how similar we are and how we all crave a way to understand how we came to be.
September 20, 2016
This is an excellent look at how people create religions and cultures in very different places and yet still have great similarities!
June 25, 2020
So much promise. So reductive in execution. This has the intent of bridging culture by using many creation stories, explaining them in a line or two, and letting children draw comparisons and contrasts. Great! But it really doesn't work. Instead it feels like by not exploring the myths further, it diminishes their importance to cultures, religions, and lands. I am glad that the Christian creation myth is on equal footing with the others (don't even get me started on the systemic racism propagated by library cataloging systems), but by its attempt to interweave, it simply confuses.
April 10, 2022
Mesmerizing, beautiful, and such a fantastic concept. The authors have taken a sampling of all the main cross-cultural creation myths and created one gorgeous piece of art that combines all of them, in simple-to-understand language and breathtaking illustrations. Each myth shared also reveals its country of origin, which is nice for adult readers to be able to do deeper research into any myths found to be especially intriguing. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and would recommend it for any parents of young children.
November 28, 2017
“In the beginning, there was only darkness.” So begins each of the many stories interwoven in this complex work exploring origin stories. Featuring bright, thickly lined watercolor illustrations, the creation myths move from the beginning of humanity to through flood and rebirth. Fleishman has teased apart disparate narratives to find common threads and the book nicely highlights the many elements origin stories around the world share. Paschkis’ illustrations do a marvelous job of evoking the artistic tradition of each location yet remaining cohesive enough to allow the reader to follow the
emotional arc of the tales.
emotional arc of the tales.
July 5, 2017
This was a book that had a lot of promise in it but I found instead that it was so wrongly put together that it made no sense in the most regards and ended up having to be backtracked too much or even repetitive that it took away from the beauty of the Creation stories of other cultures.
Although I understand the concept of the book was to compare and contrast the different Creation myths as they are given and it does a seemingly well job it may have been better to break the stories a bit further such as "And God said Let there be light (Israel) and then go into a myth where the sun and moon was created from another one. And then take up on the next part of the Creation story.
The illustration were beautiful and helped to add to the story although in a sense there may be also confusion with a bit of those.
In the end I would love to see this one remade and given with more thought to make a story that makes more sense from the Creation myths. Then again maybe I can make it on my own, which would be a fun project.
Although I understand the concept of the book was to compare and contrast the different Creation myths as they are given and it does a seemingly well job it may have been better to break the stories a bit further such as "And God said Let there be light (Israel) and then go into a myth where the sun and moon was created from another one. And then take up on the next part of the Creation story.
The illustration were beautiful and helped to add to the story although in a sense there may be also confusion with a bit of those.
In the end I would love to see this one remade and given with more thought to make a story that makes more sense from the Creation myths. Then again maybe I can make it on my own, which would be a fun project.
October 27, 2016
Beautiful artwork in tribal style. Snippets from creation myths of many cultures and Biblical account combined to make one timeline. Includes country of origin. No back matter or further explanations.
December 19, 2016
Fleischman combines elements of twenty-four creation stories from different traditions, weaving them together into one complete picture of how the world began.
September 19, 2020
Highlights the great diversity of human culture and belief in a beautiful way while demonstrating our shared humanity.
November 15, 2021
Unique! This book combines different spiritual and folklore traditions to form a single worldwide creation story. Some countries featured are: Nigeria, China, Israel, Norway, and Greece.
It provides descriptions of how the world came into existence and the deluge. Nice illustrations.
This book would be good for a parent-led discussion with kids about various cultures and their beliefs. And good for adults too!
🎉Book Quotes:
From Arizona: "Spider Woman mixed four earths together- black, white, red, and yellow."
From Mexico: "The gods met on a mountaintop and ordered the water god to flood the earth."
🌎 🎎 💒 🇲🇽
It provides descriptions of how the world came into existence and the deluge. Nice illustrations.
This book would be good for a parent-led discussion with kids about various cultures and their beliefs. And good for adults too!
🎉Book Quotes:
From Arizona: "Spider Woman mixed four earths together- black, white, red, and yellow."
From Mexico: "The gods met on a mountaintop and ordered the water god to flood the earth."
🌎 🎎 💒 🇲🇽
October 15, 2017
I didn't care for this book. I felt it was very cryptic. The book is about the how the earth was created. It also shows different creators from each country. It also makes reference that people that are bad are bad and then the gods destroys the earth with fire and water. The people that are good are spared. Then those that are spared start the whole cycle over again. I know this is how the world was created, but I think for a young person to understand it maybe a little over their heads. Illustrations are very colorful.
March 28, 2021
Paul Fleischman does a great job of combining many traditional folklores and cultures and created a story about how the world began. The vibrant illustrations give the reader a trip around the world, from India and Nigeria to Arizona and New Guineae, the reader experiences many different cultures and folktales. I think this is a great book for students to learn about the importances of accepting and celebrating all cultures, traditions, religions, and differences. They are what make us all so unique!
March 14, 2022
This book does a great job at presenting the idea of how life and humans came to be and how we are all part of the same circle. I think an important lesson that should be taught is how intertwined and connected we all are to each other as well as to outside objects. The illustrations in the book were very nice and I believe this book can contribute to many different lessons for students. The diversity that this book includes is definitely eye-opening and inspiring for students to be exposed to.
October 25, 2023
First Light, First Life by Paul Fleischman is a creation story. Even though the illustrations are great, and very engaged, I would never read this book to children. This book is recommended for children between ages six and nine years old. In my opinion, children are already confused about everything else at that age, we do not need to add in how the world was made to confuse them further. I also would not share this story because not everyone believes the same things, and I would not want to send children home questioning their parents.
October 31, 2016
Author Fleischman and illustrator Julie Paschkis brilliantly weave together elements from creation stories spanning many cultures and religions into a single story that finds beauty in our similarities, discovers wonder in our differences, and reveals mankind's instinctive desire to understand the origins of life.
A great conversation starter, and an excellent introduction to the field of comparative religion.
A great conversation starter, and an excellent introduction to the field of comparative religion.
December 4, 2018
After reading many books regarding different religious, cultural and spiritual practices regarding our creation myth as humans, I thought this book did a great job at connecting the myths of creation around the world in a simple way both children and adults can relate to. My favorite takeaway was the myth regarding Pangu--a Chinese creation story, although the book has quite a few American myths and folklore intertwined with many international stories.
November 6, 2023
I like how this book talks about the different countries and different cultures. I'm not very fond of the illustration, it's so much of the same pictures and colors on certain pages. It started to be different backgrounds in the book but I do not understand them. I feel kids from different cultures would like this book better than other kids. The illustration is pretty interesting to look at but I do not understand it at all.
September 14, 2021
This is a neat book. It takes creation stories from lots of different cultures and tells the very beginning of them to show how they are all pretty similar and different. Then they do the same with the creation of people, and with the flood story. It does use big words and is a bit too difficult for super young kids. The illustrations are great.
May 1, 2023
To me personally, this story came off as a celebration of life and creation all around us. I found this very fascinating to read and I enjoyed the many different stories and mythologies from different religions and cultures. I think this can be a really interesting book for children to read especially ones interested in these particular themes.
December 11, 2023
I personally really enjoyed this story very much, it involved many different traditions I had not known about prior. It is open for children to learn about religions and perspectives on the world in a different way that some readers may not have known or understood. Overall it is a good story if you want to introduce different traditions to your children.
April 28, 2024
The illustrations in this book are beautiful and full of color. I like that this book has different perspectives on how the world was created and talks about different cultural perspectives. I also can see where this would be confusing for some children and hard to understand. I think this book would be better for older children.
June 18, 2018
This is such an interesting perspective/telling of creation from many different country and religion perspectives. The illustrations are inviting and there aren't a ton of words so it encourages conversation.
May 1, 2023
I think is a great children's picture book, and is a must read for children. It takes through adversity and when it hits you have to find the light. It will get greater later. The author was great and the illustrator was amazing with the pictures
May 18, 2017
Apparently the question "How did I get here?" is a universal condition of humanity, as every culture on Earth has a creation story. With amazing artwork, this book explores the stories of Earth's origin from various parts of the globe. Pretty neat stuff.
July 29, 2017
megan summer reading 2017, children's book, nonfiction, non-fiction, creation myths, mythology, life, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade,
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 9, 2018
A beautiful collection of so many of the world's creation myths in one gorgeously-illustrated picture book.
March 18, 2018
The various stories of creation are compared and paired with brightly colored abstracted illustrations.
January 16, 2019
Poetic and thought-provoking, yet gentle and beautiful for a child. There can’t be enough books showing us that we are all fundamentally one.
February 9, 2021
Very interesting text. Talks about how life was made by multiple different cultures & how their gods created life on earth etc. Very unique illustrations
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews