Don't get me wrong--I like Jan Brett's illustration work a lot; we've included her Ukranian folktale, The Mitten, on our list of 100 Best Picture Books of All Time. But her On Noah's Ark is a big disappointment. How can you tell this great story without so much as mentioning the hero? The hero, as throughout the Old Testament, is God.
Three other "Noah's" are much truer to the original story/events, and are top-notch picture books as well: Arthur Geisert's Ark is rich in suggestive detail; even better is Peter Spier's Noah's Ark, a wordless 1978 Caldecott Medal winner. From cover to cover, this is a fine work.
And then there is Noah and the Rainbow by Max Bollinger, artfully handled by Aichinger. Both of these last two books include the element of judgement in very useful ways;
Good picture books can help us teach our children a healthy fear of God.
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