“”Look! It’s Jesus!”” Doesn’t it make you just want to turn your head back and forth wildly, yelling “”Where?! Where?!”” Right there — on the piece of toast! Oh yes, thank Chronicle Books for that glorious holographic transformation from Wonderbread to miracle-toast with a mere flick of the wrist on the front cover. “”Look! It’s Jesus!”” is a compilation of un-tampered-with images that were discovered inhabiting the most ordinary of ordinary objects and places. For indulgence’s sake: a water-stained piece of plaster.
But as hammy as the book may seem, its authors Harry and Sandra Choron aren’t trying to make a joke. They highlight Moses, Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, Bernadette Soubirous — some of the more easily recognizable religious believers who ran into the big man upstairs while down here on Earth. No, the Chorons aren’t promising a one-on-one meeting to every person that opens the book — just 61 miniature miracle portraits of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Buddha, Mother Teresa and Joseph in the strangest places.
The promised “”detailed descriptions of the discoveries”” only occasionally make hearty paragraphs, filling a quarter of the page, and most of them follow the same impulsive “”Look! It’s ___!”” reaction with the only noticeable changes being the location of discovery, the discoverer and what pray tell, they were doing.
But really, the book’s about the images, and they are quite fun. After flipping through “”Look! It’s Jesus!”” you probably won’t be able to eat a potato chip again without scrutinizing it for ancient celebrities. There may be a few too many wood-Marys and wood-Jesuses, but a majority of the images are distinctive, popping up on tortillas, baseballs, pierogis, ashtrays, beehives and the like.
The best? Rotting Grape Virgin Mary, Nun Bun and Chicken Breast Jesus.