MIRACLES OF THE BIBLE

Hanft and Chwast team up again for another collection of Bible stories, following their Miracles of Passover (2007). This time, Hanft retells a dozen Old Testament stories, each conveying some aspect of the miraculous, such as Eve being created from Adam’s rib, or the parting of the Red Sea. Well-known stories are the focus, including Noah and the Ark, David and Goliath and Daniel in the lion’s den. Each story is succinctly told in one page of simply written text with a short, relevant Bible verse highlighted in the center of the page. Chwast’s illustrations, done in a flat, cartoon style with a muted palette of cool tones, are simple but appealing. The volume’s winning feature is the gatefold pages supplementing eight of the stories. Each full-page flap lifts up to reveal a new, larger dimension to a central character. Goliath is hugely tall, Samson smashes towering columns and Jonah’s whale has a tail that flips across two full pages. The added surprise of these fold-out pages makes this volume a memorable way to introduce these key Old Testament stories. (Nonfiction. 4-8)