The Story of Jonah (Alice in Bibleland)

The Story of Jonah
An Alice in Bibleland Storybook
Written by Alice Joyce Davidson
Illustrated by Victoria Marshall 
Copyright 1984
Format: Hardcover
Status: Not currently being printed, but many pre-owned copies available on ebay or in thrift stores
Conclusion: Keep

The Alice in Bibleland series is actually a set of  28 picture books, each featuring one story from the Bible. I like them for the most part, and we have collected quite a set of them (12 so far).  They are told using a rhyming pattern, and illustrated very nicely. In each story, a girl from our time named Alice goes through a magic book and gets to watch, but not participate in, the events from the Bible. At the end of each story, Alice goes back home and summarizes the lessons she learned from her experiences.

The Story of Jonah is certainly one of the most common Bible stories for kids, and I often see many different versions available.  However, I've seen this particular Jonah story, the Alice in Bibleland version, more often in thrift stores than any other Bible story.  It just seemed logical to start my blog with this book.

Overall, the story follows the Bible pretty well.  It's close enough that we chose to keep this in our own personal collection to read to the kids.  

The Good points:

  • Most of the book stays quite close to the Bible, and is portrayed accurately with great details.
  • The pictures are very nicely drawn. God is represented by beams of light, even in the deep sea.
  • I love the fact that this book includes what happens after Jonah goes to Ninevah. So many Jonah stories ignore this!  This book includes Jonah sitting in the desert, God growing then destroying the plant, and finally God reprimanding Jonah.

However, like most Bible stories written for kids, it has some discrepancies too. Looking at the list below, it may seem like this book has a lot of problems, but most of them seem harmless to me, and don't detract from the story or God's glory.  I'll point those out here, though, and you can decide whether or not it is right for your family. 

The Discrepancies:

  • Like all stories from Alice in Bibleland, it features Alice going back to watch the events. You can see her in the background of nearly every page. (This book changes that pattern a little, in that Alice cannot be seen anywhere inside of the fish).  So if you are looking for complete accuracy, and don't want the fiction of time travel, then avoid all of the Alice in Bibleland books.
  • Wile Jonah was on the ship during the storm, this book says that the Captain approached Jonah and asked him what to do.  In the Bible, the captain reprimanded Jonah for sleeping and commanded him to pray to his God to save them from the storm.
  • The Bible says that the sailors cast lots to determine whose fault the storm was, and that is how they identify Jonah as the culprit.  This part was left out of the Bibleland story entirely.
  • In the Bible, once Jonah is thrown into the water, the storm suddenly stops and the sailors are awestruck by God's power. They offer a sacrifice and vow to serve him.  Sadly, this is also entirely left out of the Alice book. This does bother me a bit. It feels like something is missing from the book if it never mentions the storm calming down, or the fact that the sailors began to worship God.
  • When Jonah is in the fish, the graphics aren't quite right. You can see the fish's skeleton, which wouldn't make sense anatomically.
  • The Bible gives details about what Ninevah does to repent, like fasting and wearing sackcloth (even the animals!) The details are ignored the Bibleland story, and it simply states that the people repented.
  • At the end of the story Bible states that God sent a worm to destroy the plant Jonah used as shade.  Alice in Bibleland simply says that God destroyed it and leaves out the detail of the worm.
  • After God destroys the plant, this story softens Jonah's emotions.  It says that he "questioned" God. In the Bible, however, Jonah is so angry he insists that it would be better to die now that the plant is gone.
  • The Alice in Bibleland book ends with Jonah feeling chastised and repentant. However the Bible doesn't say say anything about how Jonah felt after being reprimanded by God in the end.  Perhaps he did feel sorry, perhaps not. I personally like this ending for a kids' book, though.  It helps to emphasize the lesson of forgiveness and repentance.

As I mentioned before, Alice in Bibleland stories always end with Alice coming home and summarizing the lessons she learned. In this book, the lessons are:

  • We must obey God
  • We can't hide from God
  • God has mercy and is willing to forgive us if we are sorry.
In closing, we decided that this book was accurate enough to keep in our own personal collection of Bible stories.  I recommend it for ages 3-7.



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