NOAH'S ARK

Pinkney, at his grandest, matches a poetically phrased text—the Ark “rose over their heads. It rose over the treetops. The strong wooden beams embraced the clouds”—with sweeping spreads of dappled paintings that capture brilliantly the hugeness of the Ark a-building, the wonder of so many creatures gathering peaceably to crowd aboard, and the closing glory of a planet festooned with rainbows as signs of God’s promise to the Charlton Heston–like Noah.

Of the making of Noahs there seems to be no end, but while other recent versions of the tale put Noah’s family on center stage, or feature realistically depicted animals or humorous touches, this brings out the vast scale of the flood: “The water rose over cities and towns. Whales swam down ruined streets. Schools of fish darted through empty windows.” But turn the page and there inside “everyone was safe.” Filling his pages with lovely earth tones, Pinkney’s occasional use of color stands out all the more: a baboon’s multicolored nose, a bright blue robe, a bright red apple, or a bird’s brilliant plumage. And then there’s all that water.

A glorious choice for reading aloud.