I finally got a hold of the prizewinning Peter Spier Noah's Ark. In addition to being humor-filled and almost totally picture-driven and excellent, it is theologically informed in fascinating ways.
Okay, okay, so of course Noah's Ark will be theologically informed, it's a Bible story. Yes, but it's also a children's book. So let's just say I wasn't expecting to see a city burning in the distance on the endpaper at the beginning of the book.
The majority of the words in the book are from a 17th century Dutch poem, The Flood, that Spier translates himself. Quick googling reveals that its author--Jacobus Revius--is a Calvinist theologian. Surprise, surprise. Here are a couple of lines:
"But the rest, worst and best,
Stayed on shore.
Were no more. ...
They were killed
For the guilt
Which brought all
To the Fall."
So what we get in the book is a playful acknowledgment that not every creature got to come along on the ark--got to be saved from the destruction of the flood.
Amazing--this is Spier's humor!
Obviously--his pictures and humor and storytelling are amazing. And the theological complexity only makes this story more interesting for me.
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