Noah and the Ark

by Tomie dePaola

A retelling of the Old Testament story of Noah's building an ark to hold his family and two of every animal during a flood God sent to destroy the world.

Genres: Picture Books, Religion, Childrens

36 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1985

About the author

Tomie dePaola (pronounced Tommy da-POW-la) was best known for his books for children.

He had a five-decade writing and illustrating career during which he published more than 270 books, including 26 Fairmount Avenue, Strega Nona, and Meet the Barkers.

Tomie dePaola and his work have been recognized with the Caldecott Honor Award, the Newbery Honor Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, and the New Hampshire Governor's Arts Award of Living Treasure.

Reviews

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, Tomie did not have Woodmorappe's book Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study or the Ark Encounter in Kentucky before he wrote his book. Otherwise, he would not have illustrated the ark so that it looks barely capable of holding 8 people, much less several thousand animals. His illustration resembles what Ken Ham calls a "bathtub ark." The ark the historic Noah built was between 450-510 feet long, 75-85 feet wide, and 45-51 feet high, depending on which cubit length was used. The ark had a volume capacity of 450 eighteen-wheelers' trailers. It would have had more than enough space for 7000 -- 16,000 juvenile animals, food, and water--all of which would have taken up about 70% of the ark's capacity. Noah did not bring two of every species of animal (species is a recent, modern concept), but two of every kind of animal, which would be equivalent to Linnaeus's family or genus classification. So there would only have been one pair of Felidae, not two, as depicted on pp 28-29 (domestic cat and lion).
Tomie's text indicates that it only rained for forty days and nights. But besides the rain, the Bible says that the great fountains of the deep were released, that is, the water from beneath the earth's crust catastrophically broke through, causing volcanoes, earthquakes, and massive tsunamis and ripping the single continent apart into several continents.
However, in spite of Tomie's over-simplification of the story, and his über-small ark, his illustrations are gorgeous.