Book Review: A Patch on the Peak of Ararat by Gary Bower

Tags

A Faith that God Built book, A Patch on the Peak of Ararat, Barbara Chotiner, Book Review, Children's Book, Christian, Flood, Gary Bower, Genesis, Noah, Tyndale Kids

Title: A Patch on the Peak of Ararat

Series: A Faith that God Built book

Author: Gary Bower

Illustrated by: Barbara Chotiner

Published by: Tyndale Kids (February 2, 2017)

Pages: 32 (Hardcover)

Blurb: The Faith that God Built series by Gary Bower uses the same whimsical style of storytelling as The House that Jack Built, using rhyme to introduce preschoolers through second graders to favorite Bible stories. Gary has a well-developed talent for creating engaging narratives that also teach biblical truth through rhyme.

In Patch on the Peak of Ararat, Noah follows God’s plan, resulting in his rescue from destruction.

My Take: This book promises whimsical storytelling, and in that I suppose it delivers. Many of the pages are packed full of words, with each new element in the story being added in to the repetitive cycle of the story. This is definitely a pattern that children in the targeted age range, preschool through second grade, might enjoy. It also helps to prompt memorization after enough reads, because the pattern of adding to that repeating chorus of phrases.

The illustrations are pleasant to see, displaying Noah and his sons and the ark and pairs of animals. There is some good color, and so it will hold some visual appeal to children. One thing that confused me, though, was the choice of animal inclusions. For instance, page 19 mentions hamster and hippo, hyena and hare. The images on the two shown pages have hippos and hares, but also peacocks and bears (instead of hamsters and hyenas). I would have expected the images to match the words, especially in the instances where those animals are mentioned so you, or your child, can point to each of them as they are mentioned.

I like how the final page not only has a nice, colorful image, but it also has a memory verse and directs the reader on where to find the full story in the Bible (Genesis 6-9, in case you are curious). This is a nice inclusion, and could be a great lead-in as the children get older. Overall this is a nice children’s book for any collection. Kids will enjoy the repetitive style of storytelling, and it succeeds at helping to learn the story of Noah and the flood.

Advertisement

Medieval Book Club: Genesis A&B

Tags

Abraham, Adam and Eve, Anglo-Saxon, Book Review, Genesis A&B, Medieval Book Club, Noah, poetry

Welcome to my second Medieval Book Club entry. For this month we read through some Anglo-Saxon poetry (in translation, of course), found free online. If you haven’t had a chance to read them yet, follow this link and give them a read. Let me tell you, it was a blast reading through this poem and, if you are familiar with the stories in the Book of Genesis, you’ll find yourself fascinated with this poetic retelling.

For March we will be reading The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis. The preview post for this one can be found here, and I am looking forward to reading that book. If you are at all interested, I would love to have you read along and come back to discuss that book on March 16th!

My Thoughts on Genesis A&B:

I really, really loved reading through this poetic retelling of the major stories in Genesis. This captures so many major events throughout the Book of Genesis:

The fall of Satan
God creating the earth
God creating Eve (the pages with about half of the creation story, including Adam, are missing from the manuscript)
The temptation of Eve and her persuasion of Adam to eat the fruit
The fall of man and removal from the Garden of Eden
Cain and Abel
Noah and the Flood
The tower of Babel
Abraham up through the sacrifice of Isaac

As mentioned above, there are spots where the website indicated pages were missing from the manuscript, which is most disappointing early on with the removal of much of God’s creation of the world. We do not see his forming of fish, birds, beasts, or Adam. Yet even with the missing pages, this is a wonderful rendition. I loved seeing the various ways in which the Anglo-Saxon culture was woven into the poetry: gold-givers, thanes, emphasis on combat, the sending of a raven before the dove on the ark, and many others. In spite of these flavorful additions, the poem mostly stays true to Scripture.

It would seem that this poem might have been the influence for Milton’s Paradise Lost, as it begins with Satan being cast down from Heaven and then, a little later, returns to him and has him sending his fallen angels out to try and corrupt mankind. It is not Satan, but one of his minions that tempts Eve. There is a tree of life, but that is not the forbidden tree that Adam and Eve eat from but rather one that is black and corrupted. And the serpent tries to persuade Adam first, who rejects the offer and scorns the serpent before it turns to convince Eve. These are likely made with no ill intent, but they are among some of the major deviations. Yet that being said, I enjoyed them as they added a little extra character and some variety to a story that I know so well from the Bible. It’ll never become what happened, but I can appreciate the creativity here.

There really isn’t much more to say about this. I wish that we could have seen their version of Joseph’s story, as I am certain it would have held some great gems that tied into their culture. I am also very excited to read the Anglo-Saxon poems for Exodus and Daniel a little later this year. It is great that they created these poems in Old English, long before printed Bibles could be easily manufactured. It would have allowed everyone to know some of these basic stories without the need to read latin or any other unfamiliar language in which the few Bibles would have been transcribed into. The best way to ensure the religion spreads through the culture would be to take the stories, put into their common language, and put a modern flavor on some aspects of the stories. That is exactly what we have here.

And, true story, I laughed when I read that Noah sent a raven out from the ark.

Questions:

1. What were your overall impressions from reading the poem? Were there parts of the poem that really stood out to you as being more enjoyable to read in this format?
2. Which Biblical stories would you like to see done in Anglo-Saxon form? They did these Genesis stories, Exodus, and Daniel. Are there any other stories or books in the Bible that stand out as ideal for Anglo-Saxon poetry? My thoughts are that Samson and Joshua would be prime candidates.
3. While this is certainly no replacement for Scripture, do you think an approach like this could make the Bible, or parts of the Bible, easier for today’s readers to read and enjoy while still taking away key principles from Scripture?