On Noah's Ark

by Jan Brett, Jan Brett (Illustrator)

Overview

Now, the very youngest readers can enjoy this classic tale in a beautiful board book version, bursting with the colorful animals and playful storytelling for which Jan Brett is beloved by millions of readers.

Jan's imagining of the story of Noah through the eyes of his granddaughter was a New York Times bestseller and is one of her most popular picture books.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399252204
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	01/22/2009
Pages:	36
Product dimensions:	5.02(w) x 5.94(h) x 0.96(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 2 Years

About the Author

With over thirty four million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books. Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew up. During the summer her family moves to a home in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. She says, "I remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. Now I try to recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real."
As a student at the Boston Museum School, she spent hours in the Museum of Fine Arts. "It was overwhelming to see the room-size landscapes and towering stone sculptures, and then moments later to refocus on delicately embroidered kimonos and ancient porcelain," she says. "I'm delighted and surprised when fragments of these beautiful images come back to me in my painting."
Travel is also a constant inspiration. Together with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jan visits many different countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that appear in her work. "From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books."

Read an Excerpt

On Noah's Ark

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By JAN BRETT

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

Copyright © 2003 Jan Brett
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0399240284

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Chapter One

Grandpa Noah says that the rains are coming. Soon the land will be covered with water.

Grandpa Noah is building an ark for our family and the animals to live on until it stops raining.

The ark is ready.

The animals go in two by two.

Big animals thump and bump onto the ark.

Middle-sized animals clip-clop by. Small animals squeeze in.

Flying creatures perch on beams above.

Swimming animals splish-splash below.

It rains and it rains.

Only the tops of mountains poke up above the water.

It is crowded inside the ark.

The animals push and shove each other.

The ark rocks back and forth like a giant cradle.

The animals fall asleep all jumbled in together.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from On Noah's Ark by JAN BRETT Copyright © 2003 by Jan Brett. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
Admired children's book creator Jan Brett delivers this breathtaking version of the Noah's Ark tale, transfixing readers with her familiar lush, colorful illustrations and eye-catching borders -- but this time including an ancient, biblical twist. Told from the perspective of Noah's grandchild, Brett's simply worded, striking rendition follows the animals two-by-two as they climb into the ark and make it their home for 40 days and 40y nights. With papyrus-illustrated borders that feature animal-shaped windows opening into more action, the tale keeps the religious aspect at bay and focuses on the story itself, describing how "Big animals thump and bump onto the ark. Middle-sized animals clip-clop by. Small animals squeeze in. Flying creatures perch on beams above. Swimming animals splish-splash below." Each spread shows a bevy of fauna (some even now extinct) squeezed tightly into the ark, and when the rains are done and the ark hits dry land, all of the critters flock away: "East, west, north, and south they go. Some of the animals stay with us. Grandpa plants a new seed. Soon we will all be settled into this new place." Contrasted with the wintry hues of her Scandinavia-set books, Brett's warmly illustrated tale captures the animals' rich hues and the close quarters of the ark, giving audiences a fresh treat that showcases even more of her solid talent. Shana Taylor

bn.com

Bushels of interpretations of this Bible story exist, from humorous spins to wooden stylized images to an endangered animals slant, but Brett applies her familiar, appealing style and creates a child-friendly, beautifully crafted version. Told by the granddaughter of Noah, the girl brings her pet dove and keeps peace on the ark among the animals. Brett's signature framed and bordered scenes depict the multitude of creatures with sidebars of animal-shaped insets depicting close-ups of assorted animal behavior. Overflowing pages convey the sense of crowding as inventive perspectives capture animal traits. A trip to Africa inspired Brett to create the borders of papyrus paper. Only the flap copy identifies the gender of the child, who could be either boy or girl in the pictures. That aside, the voice of the granddaughter humanizes the story. Striking in its simplicity of telling, the watercolor and gouache artwork of birds, insects, and mammals breathes life into this apocryphal tale. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews