It wasn’t until I began to read this book that I realised something the cover did not lead me to suspect—that it was written for children. The cover shows an anonymous-looking silver cup against the background of what looks like a close-up of a stone cave wall. It does not look obviously like a children’s book but it does appear in the children’s books section of the publisher’s website.
There are no illustrations except for the same photograph of a plain silver cup at the beginning of each chapter. From the tone and language used, I estimate that the book was written for children of about 8-12 years of age. This is also apparent from the fact that some of the more difficult or gruesome details of the stories are omitted or passed over.
The book tells the stories of 12 lesser-known people in the Old Testament who bravely served God in a significant way, out of the limelight. Included are Miriam, Caleb, Rahab, Boaz, Hannah, Mordecai, Ebed-Melech, etc. Some of them, though not the main focus in the events they were part of, are nevertheless quite well known. Each chapter is about half a dozen pages long. Under each chapter title are printed the details of where to find the story in the Bible.
The writer writes well for children, though I do wonder about one or two expressions she chooses. Did Naomi really “screech” the name of Boaz when Ruth told her whose field she had gathered grain in? Will it make sense to a modern child to say that people with leprosy had to live in “colonies”?
The writer uses her imagination to fill in background and detail to the Bible stories to bring the characters and the action to life. Whether or not you think it is acceptable to do that, you might not like the fact that she gets some of the Biblical details wrong. For example, she writes that Miriam’s mother sent her to take the basket with Moses in it to the river. Yet Exodus 2 verse 3 says that Moses’ mother took him there herself. The author goes on to say that Pharaoh’s daughter allowed Miriam to run off home with Moses so her mother could look after him. But Exodus 2 verses 7-9 says that Miriam was sent to fetch her mother, who was then given the child to care for.
These changes make no significant difference to the story but it is worrying to come across them in the first chapter of the book. There are a couple of other examples of the writer seeming to stray from the Bible record. Did Hannah kneel to pray in the temple? Was Ebed-Melech a slave or an official?
Towards the end of each chapter, the writer draws a moral lesson from the story. From Miriam we are told, for example, to be willing to do small or boring things, believing them to be part of God’s bigger plan for us or for others. From Caleb we are told to learn to stand up for what we believe in and to trust God to keep his promises. From Boaz we are told to learn to take our opportunities to care for other people, and so on. Each chapter ends with a series of ‘What do you think?’ questions, in which we are asked things like what people’s thoughts or feelings might have been, why they acted as they did or what might have happened if they hadn’t done so.
All this is fine, as far as it goes, but I would like to have seen more emphasis on how these people and their stories point us to God’s plan of salvation and to the Saviour. A good book, perhaps, to read to 8- to 10-year-olds, with an adult checking the Bible account alongside it, talking through the questions and helping the child to see how each story points us to God’s plan of salvation.
