Dr. David Glen Robinson’s Review: “A Soul’s Life by Navaji David Nava
“A Soul’s Life” is an illustrated series of poetry books for children by Navaji David Nava. Nava rose to the challenge to his artistic and literary talents in creating this series, and he has accomplished much in the result. The series is accessible to children of all ages, which means the books are geared to children as young as three years old, those just beginning every child’s quest to see and understand the world and the meaning of their own lives.
The five short books take on a very tall order: to address in some way kids’ existential questions, “why are we here,” “what is life for,” “What is a soul?” In Nava’s own introduction to the series, he explains that the series has been created “to educate readers of all ages, inspire an expansion of understanding, and encourage discussions about complex topics” like the questions just posed. By writing the books, Nava hopes to help readers gain a deeper understanding of the soul’s journey and more tightly grasp the meaning of life. That’s a tall order for three-year-olds.
Of course, the book series is a work of intense spirituality. Nava treads a winding path among the major religious traditions of the world, Christianity/Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment is that he does it in ways that may not offend the adherents of any of these traditlions. He does it with his focus on the soul, common to all these traditions. Of course, religious folk in any of these traditions can take offense at the slightest heterodox detail, but the winning nature of Nava’s stories are themselves a buffer against theological debate.
One issue remains controversial, at least in Christianity. Nava assumes the immortal soul is on a nearly endless cycle of incarnations, in other words reincarnation. The concept is gaining acceptance, but it remains largely unexplored in the Western world. Nava assumes it without question. The creator God is not mentioned in the books but is implicit.
The books that follow Navaji’s introduction hold together as one whole cloth, but they can be enjoyed separately. They are entitled “The Soul,” “The Body,” “The Heart,” “The Mind,” and “The Life.” Of greatest joy to poetry lovers, they all are written in quatrains of rhyming couplets. Occasional internal rhymes are thrown in for greater sonic pleasure. Meter varies between tetrameter and hexameter. Such disciplined writing is rare in the era of free verse and hip-hop.
If exquisite writing weren’t enough, the illustrations can satisfy any visually emphatic child. Knowing how children love color, Nava colors every page with bright realistic depictions but in tasteful combinations, many primary/complement. Such combinations subtly start directing elementary children toward more mature uses of color. Nava pitches us into wonder with his images of soul figures floating in views of space, apparently culled from popular pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. His representations of the soul are merely outlines of human figures, the interiors filled with varying color patterns. The effects stagger one with visual enjoyment.
Poetry and images. What do they teach us? How to live a good life is a good summation of “A Soul’s Life.” What parent can disagree with the line: “Drink plenty of water and eat healthy greens?” “A Soul’s Life” is a multi-media art work of reassurance and inspiration to the youngest of children and to poetry and art lovers of all generations. May Navaji David Nava create many more such works.
