Hiding Baby Moses

I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review, from NetGalley and Flyaway Books.
  • Author: Judith L. Roth
  • Illustrator: Melanie Cataldo
  • Publisher: Flyaway Books
  • On-Sale Now!
  • Synopsis: Ross’ sweet picture book narrative offers a speculative retelling of Exodus chapter 2.

Why I Requested this Title

I’m currently reading through Exodus, and I thought this picture book may provide extra insight, while provoking wonder. As I wrote in a recent review, I think that it is so important that children be given the opportunity to wonder and engage with their imaginations when interacting with the Bible. This is such an important genre!

What I Liked:

  • The story is written in the first-person, through Miriam’s perspective. Miriam is a sweet and loving big sister. She is also extremely protective, and I appreciated the portrayal of her protectiveness.
  • I feel like the narrative “filled in the gaps” for me by drawing natural conclusions from the details provided in Scripture. For example, Miriam is especially concerned when the princess approaches the baby’s basket. Details like these also provided me with fresh insights into a story that I’m very familiar with— inspiring wonder.
  • It was neat to get a glimpse into the character of Moses’ mother, to see her faith and courage. This was another thought-provoking element.

Illustrations

The illustrations are simply gorgeous and definitely something that drew me to the book. Characters and scenery, alike, we’re beautiful and realistic, while infused with highly imaginative elements. For example, one illustration depicts soldiers in the Nile.

Recommendation

Recommended, not only for its suggested audience, but also for adults who would appreciate a new take on the Bible story.

Published by Stephaniesninthsuitcase

Hi, there! My name is Stephanie and I’m a Fresno, CA native. After studying at Biola University, I received my MLIS (Masters in Library Science) from San Jose State University. I live with my mom, poet Kimberly Vargas Agnese, and serve as her unofficial agent. We reside at MeadowArc, a food forest in its infancy. I am called to, and passionate about, purity. In fact, the name Agnes means “pure.” Before I was born, my mom felt led to include the name Agnes in her name, and in the names of her children. My full, hyphenated name includes 26 letters (but not the whole alphabet).

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: