Children’s Bibles in America: A Reception History of the Story of Noah’s Ark in US Children’s Bibles by Russell W. Dalton (review)

342 Children’s Literature Association Quarterly Work Cited Rylant, Cynthia. A Fine White Dust. 1986. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. Sarah Smedman, a Benedictine Sister from St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth, Minnesota,is a former professor of children’s and young adult literature at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Minnesota State University Moorhead. A past president of the Children’s Literature Association, now retired for several years, she is active in several Monastery ministries, including writing about children’s and young adult literature for the Monastery’s quarterly, Pathways. Children’s Bibles in America: A Reception History of the Story of Noah’s Ark in US Children’s Bibles. By Russell W. Dalton. New York: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2016. Reviewed by Kathy Piehl Based on his reading of hundreds of children’s Bibles, Russell Dalton investigates how retellings of the Noah story from different eras “often reflect what the authors believe are the most crucial values and beliefs to pass on to the next generation” (4). In the introduction and first chapter, Dalton explains which Noah stories he included in his research and identifies ways in which authors alter the Genesis account. Limiting his study to English-language“children’s Bibles published by American publishers and published to be read byAmerican children,” Dalton examined volumes from the eighteenth century to the present (4). For the most part, he adheres to these limitations. His definition of“children’s Bible,”however,is not as straightforward. Although his exclusion of children’s editions of full translations such as the King James version seems logical,he also bypasses editions of such translations that contain “only select stories that the editors deemed especially appropriate for children”(14). Instead, he focuses on“Bible storybooks”that are“collections of one or more Bible stories that are more freely retold and illustrated for children” (4; emphasis added), a definition that becomes problematic with the proliferation of picture book retellings in the late twentieth century. Dalton then discusses common ways in which authors structure such retellings, noting that “they do not hesitate to abridge, expand, revise, or annotate the story in order to make their points” (4). Embellishments include mocking taunts from Noah’s neighbors or his attempts to warn them about the flood.Abridged versions omit detailed instructions for ark building and/or Noah’s postflood drunkenness.Curiously,Dalton abridges his own summary of the story by eliminating the flights of the raven and the dove,even though many retellings he mentions include those events. His discussion of the importance of illustrations, including the lack of racial diversity, points out the impact of visual elements of retellings. He concludes by comparing the extent to which authors of Jewish and Christianchildren ’sBiblesnotechangesthat they make to the original text. Dalton’s second chapter contains his most sustained and in-depth analysis of how retellings of the Noah story reflect and reinforce prevailing values and beliefs of American culture 343 Book Reviews by examining different presentations of the character of God. While the earliest versions stress the wrath of God, who sent the flood to punish wickedness, by the mid-nineteenth century authors soften the Deity’s image through strategies such as framing the Noah story with a conversation between adult and child to explain the flood’s necessity or adding Noah’s warnings to urge repentance. By the late twentieth century, God becomes a friend who keeps children safe. Destruction often disappears. Dalton considers both text and illustrations in the many examples that he uses to support his analysis. The third chapter explores ways in which American children’s Bibles make connections between Noah’s story and salvation through Jesus Christ. Among the topics explained are the differences between Protestant and Roman Catholic versions, with the former’s emphasis on personal commitment and the latter’s on the role of the Church. In contrast to changing depictions of God’s character over time, Dalton finds a consistent emphasis on certain moral virtues exemplified by Noah, a topic that he addresses in chapter 4. He devotes the greatest attention to the most commonly featured virtues —obedience and hard work—relating his conclusions to those of John Stephens...