Hey everyone! It's Phoebe. I know it's been a while since there's been an I'm A Book Addict blog post but today I'm back bringing you a new book review on a novel that I finished recently called The Ark, the Reed, and the Fire Cloud by Jenny Cote. Let's get into the review!
THE STORY. This story imagines how the animals aboard Noah's ark got there in the first place and how they managed to live in an ark far from their natural habitats for over a hundred nights. It follows the journeys of various different animals (yes, talking ones) from all over the world as they heed the Maker's call to follow the Fire Cloud to Noah's ark. The main animal we follow is a lovable Scottish terrier named Max who has no idea where he's going or why other than to follow the Maker's Fire Cloud. Among other problems, an especially hard challenge comes when the Fire Cloud moves over a big channel of water, far too long to swim across. Max comes up with an idea to ask his old friend Craddock, an English Whale, to carry them across. Once they've crossed, Max realizes that not being able to cross the water will also pose a problem for a lot of other creatures trying to follow the Fire Cloud so Max enlists two birds, Crinnan and Bethoo whose job would be to keep a look out up above for any animals needing to cross and then alert Craddock who would transport the creatures smoothly on his big, rough back. Continuing along the way we meet other animals coming from all around the world, all following this mysterious sign from the Maker. One of those animals is an intelligent French cat named Liz. Max and Liz become the leaders of a group with the animals they've met and come to be friends for the remainder of their journey. Liz's natural ability to find a logical explanation for everything and Max's faith in the Maker prove to be a good combination of traits for leading the group through many obstacles including escaping wolves who are notorious for getting into mischief. Finally, after getting through many different challenges through a combination of logic and faith, the creatures make it to the Ark where they begin the long journey, not knowing where they are going or why. Meanwhile, Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japeth are finishing the final preparations of the ark and preparing for the arrival of the animals. We see the pain and heart ache that Noah's family feel as they know they'll have to leave their friends to destruction after trying to plead them to believe and warn them of the coming flood. But God's message to Noah had been clear. Noah had now followed God's instructions and would be in charge of finding ways to keep the animals healthy during the long journey. Once all of the chosen animals are aboard the ark, a series of strange events start to take place and it seems as though someone is out to get Noah and his family. The animals have come into a series of issues like how will they keep from getting bored or growing lazy? They have to solve these by themselves since the humans can't understand them very well. As if all of this wasn't enough, Max, who is now being treated like a hero by all of the animals on the ark because of his idea that ended up providing transportation over the water for all of these creatures, is starting to turn to whatever voice is telling him what he wants to hear rather than relying on the true voice of the Maker's. But what will happen when Max is needed to save Noah's family? WHAT I LIKED. WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE. I LOVED this book and I'm so glad I read the book. However, if I'm going to be picky, I do have a few notes. For me, there were some points in the middle of the book during the animals' journey that just didn't have very much action or plot so that didn't keep my interest very much although when I came to the exciting parts, I was so completely hooked. I also would've loved even more chapters from Noah and his family's perspective. My favorite thing by far about this book was just the concept--how imaginative it was while still completely making sense and holding true to what we know about the real story in Genesis. I would for sure recommend this book. I can see any reader aged 7 to age 16 enjoying it and also it'd be a great read aloud option for families! I hope you enjoyed this post! Be sure to comment down below so that I know you visited the blog! When you comment, I'd love it if you could include what book you're reading currently because I don't know about you but I'm always looking for great reads to add to my "to be read" list. Have a great day and keep on reading! Phoebe (Your Exec. Worm:)
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