Sunday, October 12, 2014

Noah, The Wordless Book

Noah, The Wordless Picture Book
by Mark Ludy
ISBN: 978-0874866391
$14.36 (hardback)

About the book:
A hundred years before the Great Flood, a man named Noah came home talking crazy. God wanted him to build the biggest ship the world had ever seen. The future of humanity depended on it. How would his wife respond? What would the neighbors think? Was it even feasible? This lavish re-imagining of one of the greatest stories of all time will fascinate children and adults alike. Nuanced and playful, yet meticulous in following the biblical narrative, Mark Ludy's world-class art digs deeper than the Sunday-school tale of cuddly animals, exploring Noah's relationship with his family, the natural world, God--and a formidable engineering challenge. Immerse yourself in this stunning wordless epic. Whatever your age, you'll never read this story in the same way again. 

My Thoughts:
This has to be one of the most beautifully illustrated books I've ever read. The level of detail and depth to the expressions on the animals & people's faces is amazing and sure to catch a kid's attention. It will definitely stay on my bookshelf for when Gianna gets much older. My only concern if you show this to younger kiddos is the huge double page spread of the flood itself. It shows kids and adults as the water begins to overtake them and you can actually see the fear in the the adult faces. Be prepared for lots of questions as your children try to understand what is happening in that scene. 

The nice thing about wordless books is that children really have to think about what's happening in the book. You can talk about each scene, do a Seek & Find game (where are the snakes, the elephants, the mice?) talk about the food that each animal ate, the cages that they lived in on the ark, answer questions like "where did the animals poop?". Your kids will be thinking deeper about the story and I believe that the level of understanding your children develop when they aren't just being told a story is amazing. Plus the opportunity for kids to "tell a story" based on what they are seeing is awesome - they are learning to describe what they are seeing, guess what is happening next, learning sentence structure and so much more.

I highly recommend this book for any families bookshelf. It's ideal for family devotions, bedtime stories, car rides, airplane trips - I recommend it for kids 3-4 years and up. I'm looking for the next book & hope it becomes a series - I'd love to see Adam & Eve, Daniel in the Lion's Den, Joseph and Moses.

Learn more about the book & author as well as order Noah, The Wordless Book @ Mark Ludy's website.


About the author:
Mark Ludy has written or illustrated 8 children's books including The Farmer, The Flowerman, The Grump and Jujo; The Youngest Tribesman. When He's not immersed in his sketchbooks you'll find him in schools promoting art and literacy. He lives in Colorado with his wife, daughter and 2 sons.

Disclaimer: I was offered a copy of this book by Handlebar Publishing in exchange for my honest review. Thanks for reading GivingNSharing.




6 comments:

  1. This looks like a wonderful book. I love picture walking stories!

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  2. Nice review! Children need access to such books! A must for families with little ones..

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  3. This looks wonderful, and I am really loving wordless books lately. We will have to pin this for the future. Thanks so much for joining us on the Kid Lit blog Hop

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  4. Sounds like an interesting book - regardless of whether you are religious or not - the story of Noah is full of faith, hope and perseverance. Thank you for linking up with #frugalfamily linky this week!

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