Review: In the Beginning
In the Beginning: My Storybook Bible by Jonathan Shmidt Chapman, illustrated by César Garcés Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House Publishers), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Dena Bach Buy at Bookshop.org In the beginning of “In the Beginning,” the author, Jonathan Shmidt Chapman, encourages young readers to “Jump right in!” — challenging kids to make the first books of the Hebrew bible their own by listening and imagining. Included in this introduction to the Torah are the familiar, child-friendly stories — creation, Noah’s ark, the beginnings of the Jewish people with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his children, the freeing of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, until Moses brings them to them promised land. Some stories are expanded with details from outside of the Torah text to make them more familiar or relatable. For example, in the Torah, Noah’s wife, Naamah, is not named, but here she is the first to feel a raindrop before the flood. These details ...