Noah's Ark

I've been gathering copies of books which Lizbeth Zwerger illustrated for my great niece. Can't go wrong. Lovely book.

I am in awe of Lisbeth Zwerger's ar, and this retelling of the story of the Ark with her watercolors is so enjoyable!

Lisbeth Zwerger tops my list of favorite illustrators because of books like this one. After years of enduring boring illustrations of folks in proper "biblical" clothes calmly standing by as animals filed silently onto a rectangular ark, the story was made completely new to me by this lovely book. Nothing here is typical.There's a sense of urgency to the paintings, and the dark clouds lower as the family, bundled in Eastern European-looking clothes, hurries onto the boat. In one painting, the wind whips around unicorn galloping by. A faun hurries through the rain, looking for shelter. It's unexpected little details like these that make Zwerger's art so dear, and make the story of Noah's ark not just one of those old tales, but something alive and intriguing.

Perhaps it's just me, but I found the words in this version to be unusually stuffy. I really appreciated the ideas behind the way the story was told, but the words sounded too much like they had come from another world for me to enjoy them as much as the illustrations. The illustrations were mesmerising, beautiful and thoughtful. I loved the fact that more unusual animals were chosen, and the different perspectives on life inside the ark, and during the making of the ark.

This book, quite frankly, ticked me off. There are so few times that I come across a book that I want to burn or have unpublished. This is one of those times.The story is about Noah's Ark. There are hundreds of books about this topic and that is fine. There is no reason that there should not be. What angered me was that this book was not factual. It was as if the author had read a bunch of children's stories about Noah's Ark and decided to write one without consulting the Bible, which is the origin for the story.In the book, God speaks to Noah and tells him there will be a flood. The author chose to summarize God's word. This is a children's book and I think summarizing in order for the reader to comprehend what is actually being said is fine. It is the whole reason why there are so many translations of the Bible. What is not fine is summarizing incorrectly and inserting "facts" which are not stated in the Bible.The first red flag was when I came across the section saying that God told Noah the flood would come in seven days. That is a blatant lie and disregard for biblical text. God did not tell Noah that the flood would come in seven days. Noah didn't have seven days to build the Ark; he spent years building it with his sons. There were a few instances of misguided information and even the sequence of events was wrong in a few places. The author had them land on top of the mountain prior to sending out the birds, when in reality, Noah sent the birds first. I can point out more, but I will not.If the lies were not bad enough, they had to be topped off with overall bad writing. I stopped on several pages going, huh? The wording did not make any sense in a few areas and word choices were made poorly. For instance, the book translated a Bible verse resembling something like "go forth and multiple" to "Go forth now, be fruitful and multiply, and people the earth." Really? People the earth? Populate would have made since; people the earth is just odd.The trouble does not end there. Apparently the illustrator was incompetent as well. The clothing the illustrator drew was not appropriate for the time period. I am not a historian, but I am not an idiot either and I am pretty sure they did not have people wearing multi-layered suits and busty women with top hats and dress shoes. Some characters looked as if their clothing belonged in the circus.Next, you come to constructing the ark. The illustrator included metal ladders and quite a few people helping Noah build the ark. If they had read the bible, they would know that everyone, even his family (at first) thought he was crazy. They would not have helped him build an ark to protect them from a flood. His family helped, but not the other people in the area. Oh, and the artist decided to throw in a centaur in the background. If I had not been reading a library copy of the book, I would have found a nice spot outside to light the book on fire while having "Light Em Up" by Fall Out Boy play in the background. Oh, and there were people walking around with umbrellas when the flood came. They did not have umbrellas back then. They had never seen rain before. It had never rained. They didn't even have a word for it. I could go on further, but I think this will be sufficient.

Lovely illustrations. quick delivery

Lovely book

Wonderful lllustrations.Really beautiful

I find always in this illustrator the perfect joint between skill and good taste, her drawings have got soul and beauty

おなじみのノアの方舟です。聖書に１００パーセント忠実に書かれてあるかは別として、絵がとても美しいです。心のきれいなノアにぴったりの美しい動物とストーリー。値段の割に本自体のサイズもかなり大きくおすすめです。

細い線で描かれる物語の情景には、少しくすんだ色が使われていて、みなどこか大人びている。この印象は、人間の堕落を目にした神様が、ノア以外の人々を皆殺しにするという話と絶妙に絡み合い、ほろ苦ささえ感じさせる。丸みのない絵、ビターな香り。これは大人向けの絵本だろう。　　自宅の棚にオブジェとして飾るのも、ありなのでは。