Mr. Noah sets out to build an ark-under no one's orders but his own-unaware that his wife is busy with her own plans. As rain pours down, "dark as a bruise, falling hard and fast," Mr. Noah thinks it a fine opportunity to "get rid of some of those more troublesome creatures." Mrs. Noah, meanwhile, breaks out her sewing machine. "How lovely," thinks Mr. Noah. "Mrs. Noah is making curtains for the windows of my ark." In reality, she's making a large, billowing coat "with a hood and a cape and very deep pockets." Mayhew tracks the drama of the flood in boldly colored, multi-textured collages, and Morris builds slow, beguiling suspense. What are the troublesome creatures? What is Mrs. Noah up to? And who or what is in her pockets? Finding out is worth the wait, and, in the final pages, mythical creatures-dragons, griffons, unicorns, and more-repopulate the newly dry landscape. Mrs. Noah may not get a name of her own, but she never wavers in her moral resolve, and her cleverness and compassion shine in this sly secular reimagining. Ages 5-up. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

In an adaptation of the popular Bible story, readers meet Mrs. Noah, who has sewn deep pockets into her coat as Mr. Noah prepares the ark.Many readers will already be familiar with the Abrahamic tale of Noah. In this version, the story shows Noah in a rather more fallible light: Not only is Mr. Noah making a list of animals that shall be spared, but he also sees the crisis as an "ideal time to get rid of those more troublesome creatures." However, Mrs. Noah has another plan in mind. As Noah goes to work on the "biggest boat the world has ever seen," Mrs. Noah gets out her sewing machine and begins to stitch a coat with the deepest pockets the world will ever know. As the storm rages, the children believe they see things moving in Mrs. Noah's deep pockets. Luckily, Mrs. Noah is able to keep it all together until the ark finally returns to land, when she's able to lift these misunderstood creatures out of her pocket and into freedom on the new land. Depicting characters of various skin tones (Mrs. Noah is brown while Mr. Noah is pale), Mayhew's flowing, vivid mixed-media illustrations give this book a warm texture all its own. With themes relevant to today's international struggles over exclusion, scarcity, and prejudice, this reinvention is a beautiful and necessary parable for our time. (Picture book/religion. 4-8)