Book Review: Janine Suter Genesis Series

Janine Suter has written a series of books that retell three stories from Genesis that are creative and thought provoking for children (I could also say adults as well).  What I best-loved about this series is that in every book, she shows how the story points toward God's rescue plan, Jesus.  The illustrations in this series of books are by Richard Gunther.

The first book in the series was, "The Day the World Went Wacky."  I have to admit that this was not my favorite book but I did revel in the story.  I was bothered by the first two pages of this book because she starts the story with a trip to the dentist, with drilling and fillings. The images were enough to make me uneasy about the dentist.  My kids have not been to the dentist yet and I was hoping to keep it as positive of an experience as possible.  I thought Suter could have used another example in her story to show how we have pain in this world.  An example would be falling off your bike and scraping your knee instead of the dreadful trip to the dentist for a filling.  There were two illustrations in the book that I thought Gunther captured well....a picture of God handing Adam and Eve fruit when He used to walk in the garden with them and the serpent receiving the curse and the loss of his legs.  Based on the story content I would recommend this book for all ages but based on the illustrations, I would recommend ages 6 and up.  The graphics in this book are fairly aggressive but they do a sound job depicting the story through images.  This is why I recommend this book for ages 6 and up.

The second book is called, "Noah's Floating Animal Park".  This book by far was my favorite out of the series.  The story gave glory to God as the hero and not to Noah.  It also did not paint the cute little Noah's Ark picture but showed how horrible sin was, how it was taking over and that there ws a  need for something to happen to take care of the situation.  At the end of the story, Suter brings it all together and tells of God's plan to rescue us.  I would recommend this book for all ages.

The third book in the series is called, " The Not So Super Skyscraper!"  This book retells the story of the tower of Babel and where all the different races come from.  I really enjoyed this story and once again she continues to point right back to God and His son Jesus.  I would recommend this book for all ages.

Overall I would recommend these books.  They have been a great addition to our library of a good story that continues to teach the children truth about God.  I would only be cautious for the first book only because of the illustrations.  The other two books would be great for all ages.  They retell the stories of the bible without compromising it.  My children have enjoyed them and request them at each story time.