CHILDREN'S STORIES FROM THE BIBLE

Write Away. 9th February 2009

Read the full review here

This matchless collection of beautifully illustrated stories is the perfect introduction to the events of the Bible. Discover more than seventy of the greatest stories from the Old and New Testament though Saviour Pirotta’s dramatic and inspiring retellings.

Pirotta’s retellings give depth and colour to the familiar Bible stories and he keeps a sense of tradition and dignity. The quality of his writing reminds me of an Old Testament children’s book, ‘The Golden Thread’, that my mother was given when she was evacuated and which she passed on to me as a child. Each story is clearly and soundly told with very direct prose. The water of the divided Red Sea is described as ‘solid as stone, two long walls of sparkling azure.’ The author manages to make us look anew at the Creation story, painting pictures of the amazing scenes of strange-looking fish and thousands of different birds. In a powerful retelling of Jesus’s forty days in the wilderness, he adds touches that bring us closer into the story, describing Jesus’s skin as ‘blistered with desert heat’. Pirotta moves to biblical quotations at appropriate times, for example, when the angel of God tells Abraham, ‘I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the heaven.’

This is a children’s Bible that you can buy with confidence. It is for fairly confident readers, as the pages are quite dense. However, I can imagine children returning to the stories again and again and loving them as much as I grew to love ‘The Golden Thread’. Saviour Pirotta has done a fine job and you feel he was devoted to the task.

Anne Krisman