Noah A Wordless Picture Book Review

When I was pregnant with our daughter over five years ago it took us many months and at least a dozen ultrasounds to find out if she was a girl or a boy. We wanted to know so bad! Unfortunately, I had a really low amount of amniotic fluid so it was hard to get a good look. But we were able to get lots of extra ultrasounds to check my fluid levels so we could eventually discover that we were having a girl.

During the waiting game I was itching to buy some new things for our coming bundle of joy. It was our first baby and we didn’t have a single baby item, so I knew I had a lot of shopping to do. Since we had such a long wait before we could find out the gender, our first purchase for our first baby was a couple of brand new children’s story books. I remember wandering through the children’s section at Barnes and Noble just dreaming and imaging story time with my little bundle. I was so excited for the opportunity to read to my baby. I love reading and I couldn’t wait to share this love with a little one. I was very determined to follow all of the expert suggestions to read to your child every single night for at least 30 minutes. Throughout my pregnancy when I had a few peaceful minutes I would sneak into her gradually developing nursery and quietly read one of the stories to my growing belly.

And then the baby came and I became a mother and all of my grand intentions of reading to my child every night were quickly forgotten. Survival was the only intention I had for a few months. Gradually I came out of the sleepless fog of new motherhood and every once in a while remembered to pull out a book and read a story to my baby. Then she got bigger and wanted to eat the books or tear those beautiful pages or jabber and babble instead of listening to my story. I never did get very good at story time.

It is now five years later. We have certainly read lots and lots of stories and books. Not nearly as many as I had planned. And certainly not every single night. But when we can and when we remember, we read. And my daughter loves it. The “experts” suggest that you should pause and talk about the story and ask your child questions as you move through a book to develop reading comprehension and critical thinking. Once again, I’m failing at the experts suggestions. I hate the idea of stopping and talking in the middle of the story. Have you ever paused in the middle of a Dr. Seuss book? You totally mess up the rhyme! So, we read our stories from front to back and rarely pause for discussion. I know we should try to do what the experts say, but maybe I have a little bit of OCD, I just can’t.

All of that to say, I was really excited when I heard about this new book Noah: A Wordless Picture Book by Mark Ludy. Finally, a book that didn’t have a story for me to rush through reading. A book that would require us to move through slowly, discussing, asking questions, and developing critical thinking. Oh the experts would be so proud!

This book is beautiful! The attention to detail is amazing. It’s not an exact match to the Bible, simply meaning you can’t sit with your open Bible and thumb through the pages of the book to know exactly what’s going on. You really do have to pause to think about the story and watch as it truly comes alive in the book.

I loved going through this book with my 5 year old, and so did she. The first time we went through the book, we moved very slowly. I asked her lots of questions about the pictures and what she thought was going on. I then gave my ideas. She knows the basic premise of the story of Noah, so it was fun to hear what she came up with and what she noticed in the pictures. We’ve “read” through the book many more times now and it seems that we both notice new things in the pictures each time. It’s also fun to hear what she remembers each time.

This book has really helped me visualize the story of Noah in more detail to understand the faith that it would have taken for him to build the ark. I was also surprised by how long it took to build the ark. The Bible covers the story in just a couple chapters, but it actually took Noah over 100 years to build the boat. The pictures do a great job of trying to signify how lengthy this story actually is.

There were some difficult moments as I moved through the book with my 5 year old. When the flood begins the pictures describe what happened to the people who weren’t on the ark (not graphically, but obviously). I fumbled around a little trying to come up with the right words to talk about sin and death and what she was seeing in the pictures. It was uncomfortable, but I think it was valuable. These are the kinds of discussions that I should be having with my child sometimes. I think it was much more uncomfortable for me than it was for her. She took my attempt at a simple explanation and easily moved on to the next page where Noah and his family are happily playing with the animals in the ark during the flood.

This was a really fun book and I’m so glad to add it to our collection. I love the conversations that we have each time we read it. And there’s even a tiny mouse hidden in each of the drawings. We’re still trying to find them all!

This book is brand new, just released this month. It would make a great addition to your children’s book collection, especially if you’re like me and struggle to take the time to really discuss the stories you read with your children. Don’t forget Christmas is coming! You can get your hands on a copy for your family at major booksellers or make life easy on yourself and just click on over to Amazon to have it shipped to your door.-

I received Noah A Wordless Picture Book for free from Handlebar Publishing in exchange for an honest review. The views and opinions expressed in this review are my own.