From two extraordinary talents, a beautifully crafted picture book for the Christmas season.
The three wise men, or the three kings, are familiar figures in the Christmas tradition. Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park has taken the brief biblical references to the three as the starting point for a new story. In it we meet a boy who is learning his father’s trade; a man who gathers resin from certain trees; a merchant in the marketplace; and three strangers in brightly colored robes who are shopping for a gift for a baby. Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline with exquisite paintings, this simple, moving tale of ordinary people involved in an extraordinary event brings new resonance to the well-known gift list of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

A young boy is learning his father’s trade, gathering valuable resin from trees. Their find of a “tear” of resin of re - markable size leads to its purchase by the Magi (of the Nativity story).

A young boy follows his father through the desert collecting sap from tree barks as he learns the work of his father. I really liked how the young boy referred to the sap as tears. It left me with the image of tears falling from the tree. This book was dull in my opinion. It was slow paced, and the illustrations were not very inviting. ( )

This is a wonderful book to read at catholic school! I love how book does not say who the gift is for but if have previous knowledge of the birth of Jesus you know. I would love to be bale to read this book to my future class. This book does a great job at capturing family values and traditons which is important for kids to see. ( )

A young boy observes and learns from his father, a myrrh gatherer in the ancient Middle East, in this lovely picture-book from author Linda Sue Park and illustrator Bagram Ibatoulline. An apprentice of sorts, the boy notes his father's skill in gathering the "tears" - the coagulated, resinous sap that forms from the X-shaped cuts made in the small trees from which myrrh comes - that are then sold to the spice merchant. Proud of the large tear that he himself gathers, the boy is curious when it is purchased by three wealthy foreigners who have come to the merchant's stall. He is even more curious when he learns that the myrrh is intended as a gift for an infant, given that it is a substance often used in funerary rites...

Anyone familiar with the Nativity Story - the story of the birth of Jesus Christ - will know who the three foreigners are, and who the infant recipient is, making The Third Gift an unusual but very meaningful addition to the body of picture-books meant for Christmas-time. I grew up singing the traditional Christmas carol, "We Three Kings," but I don't think I ever really considered what myrrh - one of the three gifts brought by the Wise Men/Magi as gifts for the newborn Christ child - actually is. Obviously, Linda Sue Park has. Her afterword, which explores the Biblical story of Jesus' birth, as well as various theories about the Wise Men and their origin, is quite fascinating, and her story would make an excellent companion to and expansion of a more traditional Nativity Story, or to a picture-book retelling of "We Three Kings." The illustrations here are lovely, although not my favorite, of Bagram Ibatoulline's work - something about the human figures feel out of place in his landscapes. Leaving that one quibble aside, this is a wonderful book, one I would recommend to anyone looking for children's stories set in the Middle East long ago, or tangentially related to the Nativity Story. ( )