Noah's Voyage

The levelled Noah's Voyage reader is about what you'd expect.

In terms of the writing, I found the second half of the story to be more clear and detailed than the first part.  God frankly comes off as a bit of a jerk in the beginning, wanting to kill everyone in the whole world because some guy got mugged or something.  What a psycho. 

I think if they're going to embellish things and add personal "I love yous" from God to Noah, they can't say they didn't have any room to do a bit more explaining about that whole wiping everyone out thing.  At least give some sort of context to the kids, particularly as often they'll be reading about this mass extermination and global destruction event right before bed and all.

But no.  They show this guy getting mugged, mention that people were a little evil (like they aren't now?) and you just know that the guy who is doing the mugging and the guy getting mugged?  Are sleeping with the fishes.  The end.

And the two of every kind of animal thing.  That drives me nuts.  In fairness, though, just about every Noah's Ark story does that.

I wish I could find out if this story were written by a committee because the book seems to change personality and tone midway through.  I'm serious.  The second half is pretty good, it really is. 

I do have to say that the illustrations by David Miles, while they can't redeem the book, make me want to see what other authors he's worked with.  For example, take a good look at the butterflies on this cover photo.  Cute, aren't they?  I think many of the pictures have some sort of hidden joke or something to make you think of the sheer size and scope of the project that was the ark. 

I'd give the book three out of five stars overall; good but not great.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”