Children’s Books 1985–1987

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From hundreds of children’s books relating to the Bible, collected from over 50 publishers, we have selected the following as, in our judgment, the best—at least among those published or reissued since 1985. In addition to the usual publication information, each minireview gives an age range for the book’s readers.

Most Bible-related books fall into three categories: adaptations of the Bible or a portion of it; interpretations of the Bible, often in the form of a handbook or reference book; and a more amorphous body of works that includes archaeological, botanical, mythological and cultural approaches. In the reviews that follow each of these categories is represented. We have not included books of religious inspiration because these are more theological and best explored in a denominational setting.

For whatever age and in whatever category, many of the books reviewed here have weaknesses, but all of them have strengths that outweigh their individual weaknesses. 1 have tried to identify both. All have an appropriately reverent spirit, and all are acceptable for family use or in a religious education program.

A Child’s Bible

Old Testament adapted by Anne Edwards, illustrated by Charles Front and David Christian; New Testament adapted by Shirley Steen, illustrated by Charles Front
(Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, rev. ed. 1986) 288 pp., $9.95 paperback. Age range: 9–11

A revised one-volume edition of “The classic stories from the Old and New Testaments” was first published in two volumes in 1969 by Wolfe Publishing, Ltd. It is profusely illustrated in full color: the pictures are sometimes brash and often busily detailed but have dramatic composition and give period details in costume and, to a lesser degree, in artifacts. The text is divided into chapters, with headings for each story; some of the adaptations are woefully brief (seven lines under “Aaron Dies” [Numbers 20]), with three other stories on the same page. The writing is simplified, the material compressed to such an extent that—although reverence is preserved—the richness and beauty of biblical language is lost.

Runaway Jonah and Other Biblical Adventures

Jan Wahl, illustrated by Jan Conteh-Morgan
(New York: Caedmon, 1985) 94 pp., $13.95. Age range: 5–7

An oversize picture book containing retellings of four Old Testament stories: Jonah and the whale, David and Goliath, Joseph and his brothers, and Noah and the ark. By far the larger portion of the book is given over to the paintings, which are weak in draftsmanship and composition and are garish in use of color. The simplistic textual adaptations offer changes that do not improve on biblical language but are more 045dramatic, partly because of the dialogue. The result is a fairly successful effort to appeal to the read-aloud audience.

Caedmon also offers Runaway Jonah on tape, read by E.G. Marshall ($8.98).

The Book of Adam to Moses

Translated by Lore Segal, illustrated by Leonard Baskin
(New York: Knopf, 1987) 115 pp., $13.95. Age range. 8–11

An excellent preface by Segal discusses the material on which her translation is based and some of the decisions she has made about specific language or about omissions. The author consulted the King James Version (KJV), the New Jewish Publication Society version, the New American Bible and other English translations in preparing the text. It may be of more interest to adult selectors than to the children who will be the primary audience. However, all can be forgiven when a writer does a superb job of simplifying without loss of story, of cadence and color, and of spirit. This covers the first five books of the Bible, and it does so with respect for that work’s literary eminence as well as its theological integrity.

Moses in the Bulrushes

Retold and illustrated by Warwick Hutton
(New York: Atheneum, 1986) A Margaret McElderry Book, 32 pp., $12.95. Age range: 6–8

This is a popular format for Bible stories: oversize pages, a single story retold simply and briefly, and an emphasis on full-page, full-color illustrations of good quality. Here the retelling is minimal, but it is accurate, smoothly knit and nicely integrated with the pictures. Several pictures, particularly one double-page spread of the huge columns of the Pharaoh’s palace, give authentic details of the period and place.

The Story of Jonah

Retold by Kurt Baumann, translated by Jock Curle, illustrated by Allison Reed
(New York: North-South Books, 1987) Distributed by Holt, 32 pp., $12.95. Age range: 5–8

“Inside the whale it was wet but warm. To his surprise Jonah found all sorts of things the whale had eaten but not managed to digest.” A list, including a hank of rope and a trumpet, follows. The writing style is both flat and choppy. The illustrations, on the other hand, are interesting for their high sense of design, their bold use of the large pages and their depictions of people and places in true-to-life Near East settings.

Noah’s Ark

Illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian
(New York: Knopf, 1986) 32 pp., $12.95. Age range: 5–7

Hogrogian, twice winner of the Caldecott Medal, uses space wisely; busy details in those pages where the ark is being built and taking on passengers, and lots of space filled by empty sea and sky after the waters have engulfed the land. “In the beginning was God,” the picture book begins, then zooms rather hastily to God’s command to Noah that he build an ark. Adequate, but oversimplified, the book relates “And Adam and Eve were the beginning of the Generations of Man,” with an illustration showing the naked pair gazing at a blue snake and lavender apples; in the next picture (with no further textual reference) the two, faces covered, make an exit wearing leaves. What this lacks in writing style and substance is balanced by the imaginative details and dramatic composition of the paintings.

Noah’s Ark

Retold by Linda Hayward, illustrated by Freire Wright
(New York: Random House, 1987) 32 pp., $2.95 paperback. Age range: 6–7

This Noah story is nicely appropriate for its intended audience, young children just starting to read. The print is large, there is plenty of space between and around words, few words are polysyllabic, sentences are short and the vocabulary introduces no unusual terminology. This isn’t the most exciting literary adaptation of a biblical favorite, but it does exactly what it sets out to do: tell a story in a way that will give the beginning independent reader a positive experience.

He is Risen: The Easter Story

Adapted by Elizabeth Winthrop, illustrated by Charles Mikolaycak
(New York: Holiday House, 1985) 32 pp., $14.95. Age range: 9–11

The sonorous quality of News Testament language has been carefully preserved in this dignified adaptation of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. The framed paintings are carefully balanced with print on the large pages. The artist, a fine draftsman and colorist, uses the large format to full advantage; he is particularly adept at drawing the human figure, and always painstaking in showing authentic details of clothing, weapons, armor, etc.

Exodus

Adapted by Miriam Chaikin, illustrated by Charles Mikolaycak
(New York: Holiday House, 1987) 32 pp., $14.95. Age range. 9–11

Although this is in picture-book format, with oversize pages and illustrations on every double-page spread, the level of Chaikin’s writing indicates at least a middle-grades audience. Using versions in German and in English, she compared Luther’s translation (16th century), and the KJV (17th century) and two contemporary interpretations: The Torah, A Modern Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1981) and the translations begun by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig in the first decades of this century. Her narrative has a smooth flow and is marred neither by oversimplification nor by obtrusive embellishment. Mikolaycak’s work is especially effective. He is always strong in color and composition; his research on Egyptian decor and motifs adds authenticity to the illustrations.

How Our Bible Came to Us: The Story of the Book That Changed the World

Meryl Doney, illustrated by Peter Dennis
(Batavia, IL: Lion, 1985) 40 pp., $7.95. Age range: 10–12

Unlike most of the twin oversize volumes reviewed above, this book is not for the preschool audience but for the middle-grades reader who can cope with the cluttered pages, demanding vocabulary, and the varied type sizes, including some that are quite small. Unfortunately, the book is visually unattractive, with pedestrian illustrations, crowded pages and occasional asides that are cute and inappropriate. It is unfortunate, because the text gives a considerable amount of information about how the Old and New Testaments were compiled, how the Bible has been revised or translated over the years and what the world was like in biblical times.

Bible Mapbook

Simon Jenkins
(Batavia, IL: Lion, 1985) 128 pp., $7.95 paperback. Age range: 11 and older

Computer graphics, bold colors and eye-trying print are used to chart names, places, journeys and battles of the Bible in maps that follow the Biblical chronology of the illuminated events. Attention-getting headings (“Lazarus, Come Out!” or “The Message Explodes”) seem obtrusive. Each chapter begins with a descriptive listing of 046its maps. Most of the map pages also carry text, which provides useful background despite the major weaknesses of format and type size. An index gives access to the contents.

International Children’s Bible Handbook: Answering Questions Children Ask—Genesis to Revelation

Lawrence Richards
(Ft. Worth, TX: Sweet Publishing, 1986) 224 pp., $13.95. Age range: 9–12

Double columns, often boxed text or illustrations, are used in a question-and-answer format that purports to answer children’s questions. However, not all of the text follows the format, and some of the queries seem adult-imposed. (“What about Bible versions?” “How are men and women alike?” “What is wisdom?”). Photographs, particularly on-site, are of fair quality and are informative, if not always carefully captioned; the illustrative drawings, on the other hand, are, with rare exceptions, mediocre. Several features may prove helpful to teachers of biblical studies: projects, a “dictionary/index” and maps and charts.

The Lion Encyclopedia of the Bible: Life and Times, Meaning and Message—A Comprehensive Guide

Edited by Pat Alexander
(Batavia, IL: Lion, rev. ed., 1986) 352 pp., $24.95. Age range: 11 and older

Material has been rearranged and information brought up to date to make an already useful reference book more useful and more attractive. Entries are grouped under 12 headings, such as The Land of the Bible, The Story of the Bible, and Archeology and the Bible. The three-column format is broken up by profuse and varied illustrative material: maps, charts, diagrams, reproductions of artifacts and photographs of sites. The book contains a great deal of information and should be as useful to adults as to young readers. It has one serious weakness: the arrangement of entries seems arbitrary, making it more appropriate for browsing than as a reference book, despite the added access given by the index. The first few entries under the heading Work and Society in the Bible exemplify this problem; they are “Amateurs, Professionals and Slaves,” “Farming,” “Building, Masons and Carpenters” and “Clothes-Making.”

Discovering Our Past

Peter Seymour, illustrated by Borje Svensson
(New York: Macmillan, 1986) 8 pp., $7.95. Age range: 7–9

Pop-ups and pull-tabs, wheels and fold-backs are used for a brief but dramatic introduction to archaeology. Major finds—a Cro-Magnon skull, an Egyptian mummy, the treasures of Pompeii—provide the structure. Middle-grades readers will find more information offered in other, more comprehensive books. But for the primary grades reader this is a good introduction.

Consider the Lilies: Plants of the Bible

John and Katherine Paterson, illustrated by Anne Ophelia Dowden
(New York: Crowell, 1986) 96 pp., $13.95. Age range: 10–12

Beautiful botanical drawings of plants chosen by the authors (a Presbyterian pastor and a Newbery Medal-winning author) for their symbolic, cultural or material significance are the most impressive part of this book. The Patersons have selected verses from several translations of the Bible, including the RSV, adapting a few passages themselves. This is a fine choice for family read-alouds, as well as for Sunday School classes. As a botanical guide, however, it is surpassed by Carol Lerner’s A Biblical Garden (Morrow, 1979).

Christian Legends

George Every
(New York: Peter Bedrick Books, rev. ed. 1987) 144 pp., $18.38. Distributed in USA by Harper & Row. Age range: 12 and older

Photographs and reproductions of religious art (in color and in black and white) are used in splendid profusion to illustrate a book that offers a scholarly overview of the myths, legends, stories, and artistic interpretations of the body of Christian belief. Interesting for the older adolescent who is concerned about theology and its relation to myth, this volume also contains detailed explications of biblical passages or stories.

Every’s book is one of a series (Library of the World’s Myths and Legends) that is consistent in its high quality and in the erudition and authoritativeness of the individual authors. In addition to the title above, recent additions to the series include Jewish Legends by David Goldstein (rev. ed., 1987) and Near Eastern Mythology by John Gray (rev. ed., 1985). The books are all equally appropriate for young adult and adult readers.

A Torah Is Written

Paul and Rachel Cowan
(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1986) 32 pp., $12.95. Age range: 8–10

For middle-grades readers, large print and many photographs make an oversize book an easy reading experience. The text is continuous, the pictures without captions but placed for careful integration with textual references. Because the contemporary scribe who prepares a Torah uses ancient, traditional methods, from preparing the animal skin that becomes a parchment to the joining of individually inscribed sheets into a scroll, this book should have special significance to readers interested in the practices of Jews in biblical times as well as today.

Yahweh and Son: A Teenager’s Guide to the Bible

Anthony J. Marinelli
(Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1986) 151 pp., $7.95 paperback. Age range: 14–17

Marinelli, described on the back cover as having “taught high school religion for the last eight years on Long Island,” uses a combination of calm tone and fervid phrases to attract adolescent readers. Although not heavy-handed, the writing is serious enough to appeal primarily to young people whose interest in serious Bible study is already engaged; questions appear at the end of every chapter, there are set-off sections headed “For Personal Reflection,” and there is sufficient reference to current scholarly thought to give a sense of the approaches to the Bible used by such actual scholars as John L. McKenzie.

Digging to the Past: Excavations In Ancient lands

W. John Hackwell
(New York: Scribner’s, 1986) 50 pp., $13.95. Age range: 9–12

Diagrams, drawings and paintings of superior quality add to the usefulness and attractiveness of a clearly written text that describes the routines of archaeological fieldwork. This excellent portrayal of the excavator’s craft also illuminates how the discoveries made in the Near East have enabled experts to develop theories about former cultures in the region. [For greater detail about this book, see the review by Oded Borowski in Books in Brief, BAR 13:04.]

From hundreds of children’s books relating to the Bible, collected from over 50 publishers, we have selected the following as, in our judgment, the best—at least among those published or reissued since 1985. In addition to the usual publication information, each minireview gives an age range for the book’s readers. Most Bible-related books fall into three categories: adaptations of the Bible or a portion of it; interpretations of the Bible, often in the form of a handbook or reference book; and a more amorphous body of works that includes archaeological, botanical, mythological and cultural approaches. In the reviews that […]