The Animals and the Ark [Hardcover]

Karla Kuskin (Author), Michael Grejniec (Illustrator)

Book Description

Mutiny on the Ark!

When Noah builds the Ark, he never anticipates that the animals might get just a bit restless after forty days and forty nights....But just as the monkeys are squealing, the tiny animals are growing tearful, the tigers are getting bad-tempered, and Noah is fearing a mutiny of Biblical proportions, the sun breaks through!

A delightfully raucous look at the Noah's Ark story, from the animals' point of view, told with relish by children's poet extraordinaire, Karla Kuskin.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Originally published in 1957, Kuskin's (Roar and More) energetic ode to the Flood receives equally upbeat, playful treatment in Grejniec's (Albert's Nap) watercolors. In the opening lines, Noah mysteriously divines the coming rainstorm (with no mention of God): "He said, `I think it's going to pour./ It's going to rain and rain some more./ The sun will dim,/ the day turn dark,/ with all that rain/ I'll need an Ark.' " The poet's rhythm and rhyme unfold with deceptive ease, yet she varies the schemes to create a sense of urgency or to pause for a laugh for instance, she describes the cargo area of the vessel: "with room inside/ for the fowl of the air/ for the mole from his hole/ and the lynx from his lair/ for rats/ and cats/ and calves and cows/ for rams and lambs/ and snakes/ and sows." Grejniec exploits the syncopation and the humor with a spread of the named animals; silhouetted as white space within its own bold block of color, each animal is simultaneously present and absent. The artist's signature technique of greatly magnifying his compositions highlights the texture of the paper, adding to the visual intrigue. As the Ark nearly disappears within the torrents of rain, Kuskin lessens the danger by depicting the animals as very much like children: they "ate and slept and played inside/ at `Hide-and-Seek' and `Make a Nice Motion'/ while the whole wide world was covered with ocean." This cheerful tale closes not with an olive branch, but with the sun breaking through the clouds. By focusing on the experience of the animals rather than theology, author and artist provide an unusually friendly entree to the story of the Ark. Ages 3-8.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

reschool-Grade 3--This version of the story speeds along in overdrive. From the moment Noah decides he needs an ark, the pace to build and load the vessel proceeds rapidly. Life on board is equally hectic. The constant noise and activity culminate in a foldout montage of frantic animals "when the fighting and crying were awful and fearful." Kuskin's verse doesn't falter until the story screeches to a halt once the sun reappears. The frenetic watercolor illustrations push the pace over the edge rather than reinforce it. Garish colors and overlapping animals create a sense of chaos. At times the illustrations make the text difficult to read, notably in the double-page spread engulfed by torrents of rain. Those in search of brightly colored, simple illustrations would do better with Lucy Cousins's Noah's Ark (Candlewick, 1993). More focused considerations of shipboard life include Patricia Hooper's A Stormy Ride on Noah's Ark (Putnam, 2001).
Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 44 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1st edition (February 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689830955
• ISBN-13: 978-0689830952
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 9.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,456,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully colorful and inventive!, March 15, 2002

By 

Mom of Four (Antioch, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Animals and the Ark (Hardcover)

My three year old loves this book--a true find at our last bookstore outing. The pictures are colorful and fun, and the rhyme is never forced. The editors' reviews above immediately siezed on the fact that God is not mentioned in this storybook, yet that's not something that I even noticed when I first read it. I actually liked that this biblical story was told so whimsically, making it fun for my children to learn about our Christian history.

Noah and his sons build this great ark, and Noah looks for a place to park. They gather the animals, load them up, and then it begins to pour, pour, and pour some more. The animals get bored on the boat and get annoyed with each other and their cramped space. Kuskin's poetry comes fast and furious as the rain falls and tension builds on the ark, then suddenly the sun breaks through (and the animals go home).

I think the book is fun and educational. My daughter LOVES the bright, watercolored, rumply pictures and makes up her own prose as each of the animals takes the ramp into the ark. I recommend it to anyone with small children. It's captivating!