Review: All Afloat on Noah's Boat

All Afloat on Noah's Boat

Written by Tony Mitton

Illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees

Publication date: 2006
Publisher: Orchard Books
ISBN: 1-84616-206-8

Summary/Back cover:
Life aboard Noah's Ark is busy and noisy, and soon the animals begin to get grumpy. So clever Noah hatches a plan for an incredible creature cabaret to get the Ark swinging again.  But what amazing act will appear for the finale?
Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees are reunited for another sure-fire bestseller with a riotous text and astounding illustrations.  This brilliant book builds on their success with Spookyrumpus, winner of the Sheffield Children's Book Award.

Review:
We have a couple of Tony Mitton's books counted amongst our favourites (Down by the Cool of the Pool and Terrific Trains), so I was really looking forward to reading this book to my boys.  It tells the story of Noah's Ark in verse, and is beautifully illustrated with many animals for my toddler to point out.

It is a very well written book, and the text rhymes beautifully. Even the font that is used is whimsical and fun - typical of Tony's books.

I thoroughly recommend this book - we've borrowed it from the library, but it might just be one we look at purchasing for our own bookshelf!

My rating: 4.9 out of 5.


Review written by Bronwyn

Review: The Beginner's Bible

The Beginner's Bible

Timeless Children's Stories

By Zonderkidz

Illustrated by Kelly Pulley

Publication date: 2005
Publisher: Mission City Press
ISBN: 978-0-310-70962-6

Summary/Back cover:
Introduce children to the stories and characters of the Bible with this best-loved Bible storybook. With vibrant art and compelling text, more than 900 Bible stories come to life. Kids aged 6 and under will enjoy the fun illustrations of Noah helping the elephant onto the ark, Jonah praying inside the fish, and more as they discover The Beginner's Bible just like millions of children before.

Both of my boys have been given one of these books by our church when they were baptised, and they are just the most beautiful wee bibles you've ever seen. The stories are selected and summarised to a children's level - for example:

"On the fifth day, God made swishy fish and squiggly creatures to live in the ocean. Then God made birds to fly across the sky."

Every page has a vibrant picture on it, related to the text, and it is a very easy book to read - although it is 508 pages long, it is a very quick book to read, and wouldn't take more than about half an hour, if you were to read front to back (although, the Bible is not intended to be read like that, so I've never read the whole lot to my boys at once - I just choose a selected story or two, and then talk about it more.)

My rating: 5 out of 5 - as far as a beginner's Bible goes, this is one of the best ones I've seen. Thoroughly recommended for those that want to find a Bible for their pre-schoolers.

Review written by Bronwyn

Review: Donkey to the Rescue

Donkey to the Rescue

Written by Tim Dowley

Illustrated by Steve Smallman

Publication date: 2005
Publisher: Candle Books
ISBN: 1-85985-511-2

Summary/Back cover:
Children will love the bright illustrations and easy-to-read fun text in this delightful series of animal board books. Read about Donkey To The Rescue in this fresh retelling of the popular parable of the Good Samaritan.

My 2 year old was given this book from our Playgroup, run by one of the local churches - it tells of the parable of the Good Samaritan from the Donkey's point of view.  It is a board book, so lovely and sturdy for little people to read by themselves, and only a few pages long.

I like how, as with any parable, there is a "moral to the story" - which for this book is "We should help anyone who needs us - not just our friends."  Even if you're not religious, I think this is a good book for children, as it is a fun book to read, as well as having a pretty sensible moral at the end - I think most of us would agree that, even if we're not religiously inclined, we want to raise our children with many of the Christian morals - like helping other people when they need it.

My rating:  3.5 out of 5.  A cute wee book that only needs a short attention span to listen to.

Review written by Bronwyn