Religious Books for the Young
IN days gone by no one thought of introduc- ing the Bible to children by easy stages; the toddler sat at a table with his elders and with them he listened to father reading aloud from the Scriptures. Nowadays father is more likely to be filling in his pools coupon, and the child- ren's first taste of the Bible as a book will prob- ably be not the Book itself but stories taken from it, retold and illustrated.
For very young children Macmillan are pub- lishing a remarkable series of Biblical picture- story books by Reinhard Hermann. The latest is The Creation (9s. 6d.) and, like its predecessors, Noah's Ark, Jonah and the Whale, The Prodigal Son and The Christmas Story, this book is bold in design and colourful without being garish. Its pictures, which are two-dimensional, static and formal, are essentially serious, even at times awe-inspiring, and the text, if not pure Author- ised Version, is Biblical in tone. Because of this the four-year-old may begin to feel the difference between God's powers and the powers of the giants, wizards or fairies with whose exploits, at this age, he is also becoming familiar. 'Is that one God's,' asked my small daughter, pointing to a towering white cloud behind which the sun was setting, 'or does Jack-in-the-Beanstalk's giant live there?'
The language and the illustrations • of good books of Bible stories do much to clear away this very natural confusion, and the child who moves on from Reinhard Hermann's picture books to the new edition of Walter de la Mare's Stories from the Bible is fortunate indeed. De la Mare's Stories from the Bible (Faber, 30s.) is already well known, but it now appears in a beautiful new format with illustrations, including a full-colour cloth binding, by Edward Ardiz- zone. Walter de la Mare was a sensitive listener as well as a skilled craftsman with words. As a story-teller he is peerless; as a man, humble in the face of his task, aware of the awesome responsibility which rests upon the shoulders of an author who sets out to rewrite the Scriptures for the young. The language is a unique blend of Biblical' and modern in which neither jars upon the ear, a perfect introduction to the Old Testament itself. Since drama is the keynote to many of Mr. Ardizzone's illustrations to modern stories, it is not surprising to see that he is very much at home interpreting the Old Testament. No child who sees his drawing of David facing
Goliath will ever have to be reminded that it was David's faith which gave him courage.
A First Bible (Heinemann, 12s. 6d.) is an abridgement of the Old and New Testaments by James Reeves. Mr. Reeves, by skilful cutting, has endeavoured to tell many well-known stories in the words of the Authorised Version, but shorn of verbiage. By and large this is successful, but there are passages where Mr. Reeves has sacrificed clarity for the sake of keeping to his editorial brief; for example, in the chapter on Moses the text does not make it clear that it is the male Hebrew children who are to be slain, and unless this is understood by readers the story is meaningless. Geoffrey Fraser has decor- ated this book with clear, stylised black-and- white illustrations which have both strength and dignity.
Serious students of the Bible, both adolescent and adult, will welcome the publication of the Oxford Bible Atlas, edited by Herbert G. May (O.U.P., 21s.). To precede the excellent series of maps, each accompanied by clear, concise, ex- planatory notes, the editor has written an his- torical sketch of the Holy Land in Biblical times. The volume also includes an essay on Biblical archeology by R. W. Hamilton and a gazetteer.
For the almost or quite grown-up is The Orange Carol Book, arranged by Mervyn Horder and published by Constable in hard covers (I6s.) or limp (7s. 6d.). Lord Horder is a talented musician and an enthusiastic singer of traditional songs; in this book he gives young carol-singers a practical collection of carols from many sources, some in old settings, some in new, which will keep the lucky songster who receives a copy for Christmas carolling happily till Twelfth Night and beyond.
ELAINE MOSS
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