Pharaoh's Butler & Baker

The book is a short poetic adaptation of the biblical story of Joseph’s imprisonment in ancient Egypt. While there, he meets a butler and baker who works for Pharaoh. Both were imprisoned after committing an offense. Scripture doesn’t tell why they were in prison, but this rendition, with childlike innocence, spurs the imagination as to why.

One night, the Butler and Baker have a dream that only Joseph can interpret. For one, it spells doom, and for the other, freedom. And using rhyming verse that even a child can understand, the story solves the mystery of release from captivity. Though there are many ways to interpret this story, the central message of the importance of truthfulness and forgiveness shines through.

This is a winner worth a look due to its reference to a biblical case and its rendition, based on the author’s memoir A Prisoner’s Pardon, which depicts her search within her family’s background to find freedom for her twin brother, now gripped in the cycle of recidivism. She found that the loving and secure bond between child and parent was broken. The result is now a loss of a family’s value and identity. Her quest now is to help reconcile the love of family and community through unveiling the unknown power of forgiveness.