The No-Go King (Hear Me Read - Level 2)

 The No-Go King
Hear Me Read - Level 2
by Mary Manz Simon
Illustrated by Dennis Jones
Copyright 1993
Format: paperback
Status: Not currently in print, some pre-owned copies are available on ebay

Conclusion: Get Rid of It

I've noticed that many Bible stories for kids enjoy telling about how Moses led his people across the Red Sea, but it is much harder to find a story about the plagues of Egypt. Even those stories that do include the Ten Plagues, they are typically very abbreviated. Perhaps the subject matter is thought to be too scary for kids. 

The No-Go King is an early reader book, designed for children who are just learning to read on their own. The words are short and simple with lots of repetition. The back of the book says it is designed for children ages 6 to 8, but a strong kindergarten reader should be able to read this book too.  However, it doesn't have to be just for readers. I've used this book as a read-aloud for years and both of my kids liked it.  In fact, it's one of my son's favorite Bible stories.

The Good Points

• The language is short and simple making it easy for children to read themselves and easy for young children to understand.
• The illustrations are fun and memorable. Once this book disappeared from our Bible story collection. I didn't even notice it was gone, but after a few months my husband began wondering whatever happened to the book where Moses had the dramatic hair? It took a long time before I discovered that I had accidentally packed it away in the closet with the baby books my daughter had outgrown.  I only bring it up to point out that it was the illustrations that made us realize our book had disappeared.
• The book adds some rich details, but doesn't add any explanations, probably to try to keep the book short and the language simple. It describes that the people leaving Egypt carried jewelry and pans of bread. It doesn't explain why, but parents can add the details to the story if they wish. The Egyptians gave them the jewelry, and the people had to leave so quickly they didn't have time to let their bread rise or be cooked.

The Discrepancies:

• This storybook doesn't provide any context of who Moses is, or who God's people were. It simply opens with saying that God's people wanted to go the Promised Land, but the king would not let them go.
• In the Bible, Moses initially demands that the people be allowed to go worship God in the desert, which is what Pharaoh is refusing.  That is not mentioned in this book.
• The No-Go King book never mentions or shows Moses's brother Aaron. In this book Moses does everything on his own. In the Bible, Aaron doesn't take a lot of action, but he is always there in the background. Nearly every chapter mentions that the Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, or that the Lord said something to Moses and Aaron.
• Not all of the plagues are covered. This children's book lists the plagues of frogs, flies, and the Passover (which is described as the king's people dying). The illustrations also show the river of blood. It does not mention the plague of gnats, the plague against livestock, the boils, the hail, the locusts, or the darkness.  However, it does say that God punished the king again and again, so that could be interpreted to include those plagues that were left out.
• The No-Go King doesn't describe Pharaoh changing his mind repeatedly. In this story, he simply refuses to allow the people to leave after each plague.
• The book does not include any details about the Passover or what the Israelites did to prepare for it.  It only says that some of the King's people died and that the Pharaoh finally said they could leave.
• In The No-Go King, it never mentions that God hardens Pharaoh's heart.
• This storybook also never mentions God guiding His people's path with pillars of cloud and fire.
• The Bible mentions that an angel was leading the people. There are no angels in this version.
• The Bible says that no Egyptians survived the Red Sea when the water went back together. This book depicts a very surprised Pharaoh standing on the far side.

There sure are a lot of problems with this book, mostly with things that have been left out.  I acknowledge that children's stories cannot include all of the details without making them too long for the kids' attention spans. But how many of the details left out are important to the story? Does it change the importance of the story?  Does it make the story wrong? The biggest problems for me are the lack of Aaron, the lack of God's pillar of fire and clouds, and the fact that Pharaoh survives.  

I discussed this book with my husband tonight, and his biggest concern is the fact that Pharaoh survives at the end of the book.  After a lot of thought, we decided that we need to pull this book out of the library.  This book just misses too many things for it be an accurate tool for teaching the Bible.  Since this has been one of my son's favorite books, we've read it frequently.  He'll be sad that this one is leaving, but he handled it well when we removed Baby Moses from our collection. Hopefully he will handle this one well too.