Let There Be Light

Drawing text from Tutu’s 2010 Children of God Storybook Bible, Tillman (On the Night You Were Born) imagines a cosmos called into being by a humanlike entity suffused with lights and clouds. The illustrator’s luminous, photorealistic style adds an intriguing edge to Tutu’s friendly theology. When he writes that “the first flower opened in all its glory,” Tillman zooms in on a daffodil with delicately veined petals and a cup filled with the almost blinding radiance of God.

Let There Be Light combines the text of ‘The Creation’ from Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Children of God Storybook Bible with illustrations by Nancy Tillman in this picture book introduction to Genesis. Nancy Tillman’s magnificent images show a God of light and love and a world of life and beauty alongside Archbishop Tutu’s chosen scripture. The realistic animal pictures seem almost like photographs, set against a fantastical backdrop of the earth and sky. Tillman portrays a group of multi-ethnic children as the receivers and custodians of God’s creation; readers of her previous book The Crown on Your Head will be familiar with her style of depicting the children with shimmering crowns. There are introductory notes from the author and illustrator, as well as a sweetly illustrated page for inscription, which adds to the book’s appeal as a meaningful gift and keepsake. Let There Be Light delivers just the right balance of tenderness, imagination, and wonder. Young readers will be enchanted by the bright illustrations and exaggerated colors as they read or hear about each day of God’s marvelous handiwork and the culminating message: ‘You are loved.