Joan of Arc

Children love a true story, especially if it is filled with adventure, high color, dramatic tension, and heroism. In the case of Josephine Poole's picture-book biography, the author's husband, Vincent Helyar, provided the research on which Poole bases her work. Poole uses just enough fact to establish an historical backbone without dragging down the story. However, she also provides dialogue without sources, and critical readers are left to admire the language but wonder how much dialogue Poole invented.

Poole wants to tell a simple version of a complex political and religious tale. All research quibbles aside, Poole and Barrett have produced an impassioned and beautiful book, an unforgettable introduction to an important time in French history and to the life of a brave woman. Angela Barrett's exquisite paintings demonstrate the quiet mood of a spiritual girl and the pageantry and harshness of 15th-century France.