Kindergarten-Grade 3–Stewart tells the traditional story of the life of Prince Siddhartha, beginning with the prophecies about his future greatness and the impact that the suffering of others will have on him. To keep the knowledge of suffering from the child, the king surrounded his son with a life of plenty. But even in the royal palace, the prince saw jealousy and the desire for power and decided to look beyond its walls. He discovered the great truths of ordinary life–sickness, old age, death–and began his quest to find a way to relieve humanity of pain. Rippin's illustrations feature decorative beadwork as well as richly hued paint and black backgrounds; in some ways, they resemble the paintings on lacquered Asian cabinets. Story and art are printed so that the book's binding is at the top instead of to the left, creating long vertical pages, a variation sure to appeal to young readers. Along with Anne Rockwell's The Prince Who Ran Away (Knopf, 2001), Becoming Buddha joins Hitz Demi's Buddha (Holt, 1996) on the slender shelf of books aiming not at critical biography, but rather at a more seamless retelling with a direct narrative arc. Libraries that own either Rockwell's or Demi's books may opt not to purchase this one, but for those that need a beginning biography of one of the world's greatest religious leaders, it's a fine introduction to his life and teachings.
