Noah's Ark (The Bible for Little People)

 Noah's Ark
The Bible for Little People
Text by Christine Deverell
Illustrated by Richard Deverell, James Deverell, and Chris King
Copyright: 2002
Format: Boardbook
Status: A few preowned copies are available on ebay
Conclusion: Keep (But consider replacing with a better one)

It seems like we've had this book forever. It was certainly one of the very first Bible books that I ever bought for my daughter.  We've read it frequently, mostly because it is so short that we can fit it in even when we're running late and need to get the kids into bed ASAP.  But how does it hold up compared to the actual Bible?

The Good Points:

• The book opens up/down instead of left/ like a regular book, so it's kind of fun for kids.
• It's very short, so it can be read quickly when you are short on time.
• The illustrations are cute and colorful.
• The book is sturdy and well-built.

The Discrepancies:

• The board book doesn't mention why God is flooding the Earth, nor does it mention any people outside of Noah's family. It only says that God told Noah the rains were coming and he was supposed to save the animals.
• This book says that Noah had never seen a big boat before. That is not specified in the Bible. Answers In Genesis suggests that Noah may have been an amateur boat builder even before the flood happened.
• This book states that God told Noah to find two of every kind of animal.  The Bible, however, says that God told Noah two of every type of animal would come to him.
• This book says that it rained for 40 days and nights, then God sent a wind to dry up the water. The Bible says that it rained for 40 days and nights, but that the waters stayed on the Earth for 150 days before the ark came to rest on dry land. It was another 2 1/2 months before other mountains could be seen, and 4 more months after that before Noah could leave the ark. Overall, he was on the ark for about a year.
• This story skips the rainbow and God's promise never to flood the Earth again.

Should this book be allowed to remain in a home library? It's a tough one. While it does have a lot of discrepancies, most of them don't seem to change the story much aside from making it less harsh. I sometimes wonder why the story of Noah has become so popular to tell to such young children. Why is Noah's Ark so much more palatable than Sodom and Gomorrah? Both are stories of God destroying wicked people but there are certainly more Noah books out there.  Overall, this is not my favorite Noah story, and I was already planning to remove it from our collection simply because my son is out-growing it. It's probably fine to leave it in your own collection if you choose, but you might consider finding another one to replace it. There are so many other books out there that are much higher quality than this one.  I recommend this story for ages 0-3.