Review: Imagine . . . The Great Flood

It was fun to introduce Imagine . . . The Great Flood by Matt Koceich to my kids.  It's the first in a series of Biblical time-travel adventure books targeting kids ages 8-12 available from Barbour Publishing.

It arrived in the mail the very day our annual Cousins' Camp ended.  It had been a wonderful 5 days, but with high adventure activities every day, long days, and the let down of saying goodbye to beloved cousins, everyone was both exhausted and sad.

I handed it to Nature Angel (10 years old, average reader).

"Here.  Climb in bed and see what you think of this.  You can nap if you prefer," I said to her.

She took it, and I ran off to my dentist appointment.

I got home hours later (ugh!), and the first words Nature Angel said to me were, "I read the whole thing just today!  It is great!  It is so good!!!!!!"

Later that day Mister Man (5 years old, advanced reader) was sent to his room for teasing, and I, knowing he needed some alone time, handed him the book.

"Give it a try.  You don't have to read it if you don't like it."

He was a just a few chapters in when we called him to dinner.

"This book is really good!" he said emphatically.  "I can hardly wait to read it some more!"

Which he did--before his bath, after his bath--and just before lights out, he finished the book, saying to me in basically one breath:

"I really liked it.  I like that he got back home again.  It was scary when the giant dropped him in the big hole.  The boy's name was Corey, and he was 10 years old.  On a rainy day he fell under a fallen-over tree and he was whisked back to Noah.  I don't know how.  He went on the ark when the rain started to fall.  There was no rain it said, so they didn't know that clouds were called clouds.  The hills turned into islands.  One of Noah's sons was named Shem.   Corey was just whisked away--I don't know why.  I'm glad he got home."

Some weeks later, specifically for the purpose of writing this review, I asked Nature Angel to tell me about the book and why she liked it so much.

"I really liked it!  There was lots of wondering what was going to happen to Corey.  I didn't have a favorite part--I really liked it all.  Just the way the author wrote it made me feel like I was sucked into the book.  It made me feel like I was Corey."

Her summary of the book's message is:

"Corey is a 10 year old boy who travels back in history to Noah's ark.  His family was getting ready to move to Florida, but he was really unhappy about it, and something happened that made him go back in time.  He learns that since Noah had to leave his home without knowing where he was going, that it would be okay for him."

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