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The journey with Jonah

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Madeleine L'Engle is best known as a gifted children's author, but her literary career also spanned novels for adults and religious writings. "The Journey With Jonah" is a short play that fleshes out the Biblical story in an unusual and comic fashion. At the same time, it is a thought-provoking read that highlights L'Engle's poetic ability and intelligent writing.

The play begins with Jonah's tirade against God, for he is upset and unwilling to travel to Nineveh to play the prophet to that evil town. Anyone familiar with the Biblical story will know that Jonah's refusal finds him cast overboard and into the belly of a great whale until he finally accepts God's purpose for his life. These events are witnessed by a cast of animals, the only other characters in the play: first by a collection of birds, particularly a blue jay which follows him on his misadventures, then a family of rats, a fish, the whale, a turtle, and a worm. Knowing that the other characters are animals makes it a little difficult to conceive exactly how this play was produced, but these animal companions are a natural choice for a prophet who was unwilling to heed God's call.

"The Journey With Jonah" is a unique read that is difficult to find nowadays. The black and white illustrations by Leonard Evertt Fisher complement the play with their stark beauty and simplicity. L'Engle's prose sparkles with poetry as she paints a fresh picture of this well known Biblical episode.

This is a play that children would enjoy putting on and would be learning about the Biblical Jonah at the same time (probably without realizing that that's part of the point of the play.) It is also extremely readable for adults.