Barbour Publishing Imagine. . .The Great Flood by Matt Koceich Book Review

My family had the privilege of reading the Imagine. . .The Great Flood by Matt Koceich from Barbour Publishing for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Barbour Publishing is a Christian publisher that has more than 150 new titles per year and nearly one thousand stock titles. They have shipped over one hundred million books since they started in 1981. In one fiscal year they reached fourteen million books sold that shared the message of Christ!

Imagine. . .The Great Flood is a juvenile, middle grade fiction chapter book by Matt Koceich. It is the first book in an epic adventure series for kids ages 8-12 year old. The Imagine series brings the Bible to life for today's children so they can imagine what it would be like to have lived through a massive biblical event. The Great Flood is about a kid that travels back to the time of Noah's Ark to experience the adventure himself and learn an important lesson.

Teela reading the Imagine. . .The Great Flood by Matt Koceich.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
Teela, my nine year old daughter, and I read this book separately. It has 112 pages and 15 chapters. This was a quick, fast paced read for the both of us. We both thought the book held our attention well. It had a lot of action and adventure throughout the whole thing.

Since this is fictitious it does have elements that are not in the Bible. In this story of Noah's Ark the author has taken some of his own liberties with the biblical text to make it more interesting. The main character, Corey, goes back in time and helps Noah and his sons to get the animals on the ark, so of course he was never in the biblical account. Also, there are giants called Nephilim and an evil sorcerer named Elizar that try to thwart Noah's plans to get the animals aboard the ark in the book. The Nephilim are mentioned in the bible, first in Genesis 6:1-4, but after some research of my own I found the Nephilim to be a more complex concept. Some say these are watchers or giants or fallen angels. Some interpret the bible to mean they are descendants of Adam and Eve were "Sons of God" (Seth's line) had children with "Daughters of Man" (Cain's line). The Nephilim are definitely up to interpretation and not entirely explained well in the bible. Elizar isn't even a character in the bible at all as far as I can tell. Even though these added elements make this bible adventure more interesting I had to make sure that my daughter knew they were not in the biblical account. I also thought it silly that in this story Noah and his sons had no clue what a cloud was. I am pretty sure he saw rain and clouds before. I suggest that one reads the actual story of Noah's Ark in the bible to their children before they read Imagine. . .The Great Flood.

There are many things that make this book exciting. From the adventure of Corey going back in time, the Nephilim Giants, the wild animals, to the Great Flood itself...this story grabs you from the beginning all the way to the end. If your kids like adventure books they probably will like this book.

Corey learns an important lesson in this story as well. He learns to put his trust in the Lord. This book has a great parallel of this from his life in the present to him being thrust back into time. The main character grows to understand the importance of trusting God throughout the story.

Teela and I enjoyed reading this book from the Imagine Series. Even though parts of this Christian kids book was fictitious it did have a great lesson. We liked the action and adventure as well. It was a fun book to read.

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Noah A Wordless Picture Book by Mark Ludy Review & Giveaway

This review and giveaway is sponsored by Propeller Consulting, LLC. This post contains affiliate links which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and make a purchase. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Noah A Wordless Picture Book by Mark Ludy is an impressive illustrative retelling of the biblical story of Noah's Arc without words. Well technically it has the words, "Methuselah welcomes his grandson, Noah...", on the first page, but then there is pretty much silence. You can see so much expression in the peoples' faces on each page. The artist literally paints epic pictures of how he thinks Noah and the people around him acted, felt, and lived. It really does make Noah and his ark seem more tangible. Although this work is Mark Ludy's own interpretation of the biblical story, he goes about the retelling in pictures fairly accurately.

This amazing illustrated work was funded a while back by Kickstarter. Mark Ludy is a fabulous artist and illustrator! I commend him in getting this project successfully funded.

I have some mixed feelings about Noah A Wordless Picture Book by Mark Ludy. The pictures are absolutely gorgeous. They remind me of a hardcover graphic novel/comic book with no words.  Some of them; however, are for the more mature audience. Ludy, himself, said that if he left the bad stuff out of the story it would be a disservice to all...I am not sure I agree, but everyone has their own opinions. There are pictures in this book that are of the darker more grim scenes of the flood (like people drowning, being swept away by the waters). This is certainly not a "Sunday school version" that smooths out all the bad stuff or completely ignores it in the retelling. Although the age range is 2-18 on Amazon for this book, I really feel that the younger set might not be ready for the graphic and intense nature of some of these pictures. Depending on your own standards, you might want to screen some of these. Also, I am not sure what to make of the dinosaurs on some pages. My church doesn't really take a stance on creationism or intelligent design verses evolution in relationship to dinosaurs and how old the Earth really is. All I do know is that we don't have all the answers...there really is no way of knowing everything, unless you are THE omnipotent God.

So, I would say it is probably best to use your own best judgement and wisdom with this book. If you do narrate the pictures for your children do not stray from the actual Bible version of the story, especially if you are rusty on the story, and be ready to answer questions that might come up. The new 2014 Noah movie is far from an accurate biblical account, so please don't base your narration off of it.

Also, as a fun little bonus, you can try to find Squeakers the mouse on every page of this book. It is harder than it looks and I am still looking for that illusive little rodent on some of the pages! My older kids were trying to help me to no avail.

This book would be great for the Creationist or possibly someone who loves biblical illustration or art. I recommend it for older kids. I think that it would also be great in some church circles.

About the author:

Mark Ludy has written or illustrated eight children’s books including The Farmer, The Flower Man, The Grump,When I Was a Boy I Dreamed, When I Was a Girl I Dreamed, 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 two sons.

Mark’s website: http://www.markludy.com  
Official NOAH website: http://www.plough.com/en/ebooks/n/noah
 
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