The Ark, The Reed, & The Fire Cloud by Jenny L. Cote

Stars: ****1/2

I received this book for review from the author.

I’ve already blogged about this book/author here and here.

That first link also provides a full description of the book. If you aren’t Christian, I want to warn you that you will see words such as Biblical and Noah’s Ark but let me just say, I’m Pagan and I LOVED the book.

This book is the story of Noah’s Ark from the perspective of the animals. Whether or not you believe the story of Noah’s Ark really did take place, the story is thought provoking and interesting and when written as Jenny L. Cote has, also fun at times. (Well for those spared at least.)

You can also find out more about the book at the website, http://www.maxandliz.com/. Throughout the site there are three different YouTube videos, one of which I put in my author post above (second ‘here’ link)

This book was written with ages 8-12 in mind but I don’t know many 8 year olds who could read this on their own. I think younger than 9 would need to read it with a parent or by a parent. It’s a biggie with 432 pages. It is most definitely a book for teens and adults too, especially if you love animals. We have no way for sure to know what animals would say if they could talk but I’m sure what Jenny wrote them as saying is as close as we could get. All the talking is believable.

Since the animals come from all over the world, one would imagine they would speak different languages. While it would be impossible to have each animal speak a different language completely (how would they talk amongst themselves?) the author made sure to include common saying and words from the different languages. You can see all of them listed by country in the back of the book. For example the African animals say Moffie to mean wimpy and Isit? to mean Really? The Australian animals may say G’day for Hello and Sheila for a woman while the Scottish animals say Bonnie to mean Pretty and Ta to mean To. I found myself reading with an accent in my head!

More than the first half of the book is the journey of the animals to the ark. At first thought, you may think 200 pages is way too much for just a journey to the ark but you would be wrong. Jenny could have written more if she wasn’t worried about how the long might get. The second half is after everyone is on the ark which again is NOT boring. In fact Liz organizes all kinds of activities for the animals to do to keep busy.

The Ark, The Reed & The Fire Cloud is just the first in a series of books called The Amazing Tales of Max & Liz. The next novel which Jenny L. Cote is currently working on will be called The Dreamer, The Schemer and The Robe. You can read a synopsis of that book and the next two here, just click on books.

I really enjoyed this book and will be hanging on to my copy of it for sure!

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