From Publishers Weekly
Folklorists more than families may gravitate toward Noah and the Devil: A Legend of Noah's Ark from Romania by Neil Philip, with sumptuous panel paintings by Isabelle Brent. A composite of several Romanian legends, it has a cherchez-la-femme premise: Noah's wife ("She really was a stubborn woman") provokes Noah by refusing to board the ark, whereupon he says, "Oh, you devil, come in!" and thereby allows the real Devil to enter. Other twists in the relatively lengthy text includes magical explanations for why cats fear water and why fleas bite. The gold-leaf and watercolor compositions, elegant and detailed, don't match the earthy folk quality of the story.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
K-Gr 4-In this version of the familiar story, the Devil seizes the chance to board the ark when Noah impatiently exhorts his wife to hurry by calling, "Oh, you devil, come in!" Determined to sink the ship, the Devil, now in the form of a mouse, gnaws a hole in a plank. A cat catches the mouse, but the two land in the sea and the Devil escapes. As water rushes in, Noah makes a deal with a snake, which cuts off its tail to plug the hole in return for "a human being every day, for me and my children to eat." After the animals disembark, Noah realizes that if he fulfills his part of the bargain, humans will be extinct. So he throws the snake into the fire, and its scattered ashes turn to fleas. Those tiny creatures continue to get their daily quota of blood. Philip provides extensive source notes for various aspects of his tale. Done in watercolor and gold leaf, the art is similar in motif and design to Brent's illuminated Noah's Ark (Little, Brown, 1992; o.p.). Here, she has widened the borders and enlarged the inset paintings on the pages with text. This book will interest those searching for variants of the familiar Noah story, but even readers unfamiliar with Genesis can enjoy the twists and turns of this account.
Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
