#17

Noah and the Devil
Retold by Neil Philip
Illustrated by Isabelle Brent
Clarion Books
2001
23 pages

Traditional Literature

“Oh, you devil, come in!"

            I chose this book because of my Christian faith. I was interested to see how the legend of Noah’s Ark would be told from another country’s perspective. This is a retelling of the legend of Noah’s Ark told from Romania. In the Romanian version of this story, pairing the animals two by two and getting them to climb aboard the ark is fairly simple. Noah’s stubborn wife, on the other hand, does not want to set foot on the ark. As Noah tries to convince her to come aboard, he gets aggravated at her and says “Oh, you devil, come in!” which invites the real devil inside the ark. The devil takes the form of a mouse, who chews a hole in the bottom plank of the ark to try to drown everyone on the ark. As Noah tries to catch the mouse, he throws a glove at it, and the glove turns into a cat. The cat catches the mouse, and Noah throws them both overboard. A snake tells Noah that he can cut off its tail to patch the hole in the plank in return for a human being to eat each day. Noah has no other choice but to agree to the deal. After sailing on the ark for one hundred and fifty days, Noah sets a dove free to search for dry land. The dove couldn’t find a dry place to land, so a week later Noah sets her free again. The white dove brings back a sprig of olive and Noah knows that the land is finally dry. Noah opened the ark and thanked God for saving his family. God told Noah to be fruitful and multiply, and to take care of the animals. Noah builds a fire to make a sacrifice to God for all that he has done. About that time, the snake slithered up to Noah. The snake asks Noah if he is going to keep his side of the deal, but Noah tells him that he cannot. Noah threw the snake into the fire and it burned to ash. Each speck of ash turned into a flea. The book says that Noah lived to be nine hundred and fifty, and was perfectly happy, except for one small thing. He and his family were plagued by fleabites. “In fulfillment of Noah’s promise to the snake, together all the fleas in the world suck just enough blood from people to make up one whole human being a day.”

Isabelle Brent illustrates this book in rich watercolor and gold leaf accents. Each double-page spread has a large, bold border along the top and bottom edges of the page. On each page that has text, there is spot art of what Noah saw out the window of the ark, and the opposite page has a full-page illustration relating to the text. The gold leaf accents add texture to the illustrations in the story. There is a lot of blue in each illustration, relating to all of the water of the flood.

This book is appropriate for a student of any age to read. Although being able to recognize faith in schools has been taken away, a teacher could use this book to compare and contrast the story from the Bible and this legend from Romania. Students would easily be able to identify similarities and differences between the two stories. A teacher could also use this cute story when talking about story retellings. This book is a perfect example of one from a different country.

Noah and the Devil is not a very well known book, and it has not been awarded any medals or honors. This book is a must read!