The stories from the Gospels about the life of Jesus are among the cornerstones of Western culture. Today, when religion is both omnipresent and strangely absent from children's lives, this version of the Gospels is presented to readers in its cultural context and as a narrative of interest both for the compelling quality of the life it reveals as well as for the deep, resonant role it has played for all who live in the Christian and post-Christian world. Celia Barker Lottridge brings her award-winning gifts of storytelling to The Life of Jesus. Jesus's life and his teachings and the parables are so freshly told that they seem new again. Their power shines throughout the book. Linda Wolfsgruber's rich illustrations are influenced by her childhood in the deeply Catholic Sud Tyrol (today Alto Adige), and her acquaintance with the iconographic roots of the stories has allowed her to bring historical significance into the illustrations.