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The story of Ruth is the story of great faithfulness in the midst of hardship. Your kids will be entertained and inspired by this powerful Bible figure. This story is written especially for eight to twelve year olds and features action-packed illustrations on every other page. It makes an excellent resource for Sunday school classes, Christian and home schools, long rainy days, or extended car rides. The Chronicles of Faith series is the wholesome entertainment kids need. Your kids will love all six stories about the lives of key Bible characters like Jesus, Joseph, and Elijah.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
17 people want to read
About the author
Kjersti Hoff Báez
15 books5 followersKJERSTI HOFF BAEZ is a native of New York. She is a wife and mother, who enjoys writing in her spare time. She writes romance and children's books.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 5, 2026
Mostly good!
Nitpicks:
1. Naomi (in this book) commands her daughters-in-law to come with her then changes her mind and lets them stay.
In the Bible, she tells them to stay.
I feel like this sets a VERY different vibe — like, in the Bible, Ruth comes out of love. In this book, she’s following a command.
2. Ruth tells her horrid mother who sends her to a terrifying pagan animal sacrificing lady.
Once again — it feels like she is running from home rather than choosing to stay out of love.
3. Lots of traumatic racism.
Many different characters use the phrase: “Go back to your own country!”
And threatened to kill her for being a different ethnicity than them.
One tries to kill her — picking up a stone to kill her — but is stopped by Laman.
4. Laman and Boaz rescue her, but the women — her horrid mother, terrifying pagan priestess, bratty and cruel Naomi, racist townswomen, monstrous worker ladies — the women are written to be hated.
Why are we writing books where women are to be hated… about a Woman in the Bible?
The pictures draw these women as visibly monstrous.
5. This book repeatedly points out that all the other women have black hair but Ruth has “Auburn” hair.
Uh… she’s Middle Eastern.
She had black hair.
And all the other men have curly black hair, but Boaz has “brown” hair.
Uh… he’s Jewish.
He has curly black hair.
So that feels really… awkward… that the main characters are described as physically… uh… white?? While all background characters are Middle Eastern.
Nitpicks:
1. Naomi (in this book) commands her daughters-in-law to come with her then changes her mind and lets them stay.
In the Bible, she tells them to stay.
I feel like this sets a VERY different vibe — like, in the Bible, Ruth comes out of love. In this book, she’s following a command.
2. Ruth tells her horrid mother who sends her to a terrifying pagan animal sacrificing lady.
Once again — it feels like she is running from home rather than choosing to stay out of love.
3. Lots of traumatic racism.
Many different characters use the phrase: “Go back to your own country!”
And threatened to kill her for being a different ethnicity than them.
One tries to kill her — picking up a stone to kill her — but is stopped by Laman.
4. Laman and Boaz rescue her, but the women — her horrid mother, terrifying pagan priestess, bratty and cruel Naomi, racist townswomen, monstrous worker ladies — the women are written to be hated.
Why are we writing books where women are to be hated… about a Woman in the Bible?
The pictures draw these women as visibly monstrous.
5. This book repeatedly points out that all the other women have black hair but Ruth has “Auburn” hair.
Uh… she’s Middle Eastern.
She had black hair.
And all the other men have curly black hair, but Boaz has “brown” hair.
Uh… he’s Jewish.
He has curly black hair.
So that feels really… awkward… that the main characters are described as physically… uh… white?? While all background characters are Middle Eastern.
October 27, 2019
So I fully admit that I am in no position to be reasonable in my critique of this book and that in retrospect I can see that some of the framing, specifically Ruth's repulsion to her homeland's religion was antipagan in ways that don't hold up. The story would have been better off having her lack of connection with her own born family and willingness to explore an unfamiliar place and religion for love be the focus rather than making her randomly repulsed by wise women and animal sacrifice only when the Moabite religion does it.
That said the emotional beats of this story were formative to me and my beginning to think of made family so I'm not going to be objective and I still think it was very good.
That said the emotional beats of this story were formative to me and my beginning to think of made family so I'm not going to be objective and I still think it was very good.
April 8, 2023
this was the story of Ruth and how her kindness and bond to her Mother-In-Law Naomi helped her to adjust to a new land and eventually found a second husband who she later had a son with..she was a Moabite women who married a Hebrew then he died and her mother in law and her moved back to Bethlehem where she goes to work in the fields they are poor and need food and soon Boaz takes notice of her and falls in love..good story
October 26, 2016
This is a beautiful story, imaginatively written on the life of Ruth.
November 30, 2008
This series is kind of a like a Great Illustrated Classics for Bible stories. This one was absolutely wonderful. It brought the story of Ruth to life without adding too many embellishments or changes to the real story. Our family absolutely enjoyed this.
August 6, 2008
A children's version of the biblical story of Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi
June 28, 2010
I think this one was my absolute favorite of all the Young Reader's Christian Library. A great retelling of the classic Bible story. :D
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews