Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | J 222.1091 FEI | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Specially crafted for a young audience, this stunning children's edition of the New York Times bestseller is illustrated with black-and-white maps and Feiler's own photographs.
Author Notes
Bruce Feiler (born October 25, 1964) is a writer on social issues and, particularly more recently, on religion. Feiler is a native of Savannah, Georgia, and now lives in New York City with his wife and children. His wife sometimes appears as a traveling companion in his books.
Feiler completed his undergraduate degree at Yale University. His latest book, The Council of Dads: My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me, describes how after recieving a diagnosis of cancer, he asked six men from all phases of his life to be present through the phases of his young daughters¿ lives. (Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-In this version of his adult book with the same title (Morrow, 2001), Feiler largely succeeds in slimming rather than dumbing down his account of his trip across the 10,000-mile setting of the earliest Bible stories. The author's unpretentious (even hokey) tone and astute pacing help make the volume accessible, and his sincerity is palpable. Although his trek covered only the first five biblical books, his openness to both Christianity and Islam extends the reach of this title. A quick review of the relevant stories as he reaches their sites is helpful. He gives pronunciation tips and carefully balances the claims of science (in explaining the plagues in Egypt, for instance) with faith. The regular use of present tense is welcome, and the photo of the author (and his expert archaeological guide) also emphasizes his "real-guy" persona. The book ends abruptly with the Ten Commandments (before the actual taking of the Holy Land), thus sidestepping politics. The maps and black-and-white photos add to the documentary feel of the book. There's no mystical conversion, but Feiler did discover something worthwhile on his journey. Seeing the stories' sites makes them alive for him both in the past and in the present.-Patricia D. Lothrop, St. George's School, Newport, RI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bruce Feiler adapts his adult title, Walking the Bible, which recounts his trek through the Holy Land, in this kid-friendly version, Walking the Bible: An Illustrated Journey for Kids Through the Greatest Stories Ever Told, illus. by Sasha Meret. The author's photographs as well as Meret's line illustrations cover the sites of his route and maps as well as swirling, fantasy-influenced images of desert travelers surrounding Old Testament passages. He combines vivid regional descriptions with his own musings and revelations: "The Nile is to rivers what the Bible is to books: big, long, and important." (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Feiler reworks his adult book, Walking the Bible, to introduce readers to the stories of the Hebrew Bible and the land where the biblical events may have happened. His narrative, illustrated with photographs and maps, is readable and personal as he travels from Mt. Ararat to Abraham's Promised Land. The book is both a strong resource and a thoughtful exploration of faith. Ind. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Gr. 5-8. While in Jerusalem, Feiler, the author of the adult book by the same name, walked across the Middle East, exploring the places where the biblical stories ostensibly took place. He began at the intersection of the Tigeris and Eurphrates rivers, a likely spot for the Garden of Eden, then headed to Turkey to find Noah's Ark; to Ur and Abraham's home; to Egypt, Moses and Joseph's adopted land; and finally to Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. This volume, aimed at young people, has been trimmed considerably, and at times, the cuts seem to have been made with a hacksaw rather than a scalpel, making the version shorter but not always shaped for its intended audience. Still, readers won't be disappointed by the material. Feiler writes in a conversational way that will draw them close, and his significant descriptive abilities will ground familiar stories in reality. Effective black-and-white photographs and evocative line drawings are scattered throughout. There are also many maps of the biblical places; a map overlaying these sites on current borders would have been helpful. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2004 Booklist
Excerpts
Excerpts
Walking the Bible (children's edition) An Illustrated Journey for Kids Through the Greatest Stories Ever Told Chapter One Walking the Bible The sun seems bigger in the desert. It sits in the middle of the sky, staring down at you wherever you go, like some single-eyed monster saying "I want you. I want you. You will not escape!" The idea of the sun as a friend does not exist here. In this place, the sun is your enemy. On a hot afternoon, I was standing on a hill, staring at the sun as it peered down on the most beautiful city in the world, Jerusalem. This ancient city -- more than 3,000 years old -- is located in the central hills of Israel, in the heart of the Middle East, the region that gave birth to the Bible. The sun is white here, not yellow, and pushes down on the hills and valleys, which are mostly brown because there's so little water. A few palm trees climb from the stones. It's my first day in the city, and I was standing with my friend Fred, who wanted to show me the many spires and domes that make up the skyline. I grew up in the American South, in a city filled with churches and a wonderful old synagogue. I read the stories of the Bible, painted maps in Sunday school, and acted out biblical characters in plays. Yet somehow the stories always took place in some faraway land, in some faraway time that I could not entirely understand. The Bible was just a book to me. After leaving home, I traveled around the world for years, living in Japan, England, and elsewhere. As I lived in these countries and tried to understand their cultures, the Bible became even less important to me. It was a book about the past. I was interested in the present. Then I came to Jerusalem. My friend positioned me in the middle of the hill. "Think back to your childhood," he said, "when you read the stories of our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." I did. "Now look over there," he said, pointing to one hill. "That's a new neighborhood we're building today. Now look over there," he said, pointing in the other direction, toward the giant golden dome that marks the heart of the Old City, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the world. "That's the Dome of the Rock. And it's built on the rock where Abraham went to sacrifice his son Isaac." For a second I couldn't speak. It had never occurred to me that the story of Abraham and Isaac -- so timeless, so distant -- might have happened in a place you could visit. It had never occurred to me that the story was so connected to the present. "You mean that story occurred in a real place," I said, "that you can touch -- today?" In the Middle East, I realized, the Bible is not just a book. It's a living, breathing entity. The stories didn't just happen anywhere. They happened here. Suddenly I wanted to know this Bible, the one that's connected to the ground. I had an idea: What if I walked across the Middle East, visiting the places where the stories occurred, and read the stories in those locations? Could I even find those places? Did they still exist? Over the next few weeks, I told everyone about my idea of retracing the stories of the Bible through the desert. Few people thought this was a good idea. First, there were simply too many stories, people said, that took place over thousands of years. Second, these places were unsafe, my friends back home said, because they were located in the Middle East -- specifically Turkey, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and Egypt -- places that are often filled with religious tension, terrorism, and war. Finally, there was little archaeological and historical evidence linking these stories to specific locations. And that was all before I told my mother. But I couldn't get the idea out of my head, so a few months later I returned to Jerusalem. I went to see an old professor, an archaeologist who had been digging up biblical evidence for nearly ninety years. He was a short, gentle man, who sat hunched in a chair in an office overlooking the same golden dome that had been built on the spot where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son. He listened politely as I told him my idea, and when I finished he told me politely that I was out of my mind. "People like me are far too busy to talk to people like you," he said. I sat back, devastated. But the professor was a generous man, too, and that night he called me. "What you need is a man with knowledge," he said, "but also a sense of poetry. What you need is Avner Goren." The next day I went camping in the desert, where I met some young guides. I told them what I wanted to do. "What you need is Avner Goren," they said. So when I returned to Jerusalem I telephoned Avner Goren, who agreed to meet me. Avner Goren is also an archaeologist, and he was in charge of ancient sites in the Sinai Desert, where Moses led the Israelites as they wandered through the wilderness for forty years. The next morning he arrived at the home where I was staying driving a rickety blue Subaru that was older than Abraham. In his fifties, Avner had squinty blue eyes, a boyish grin, and curly gray hair that squiggled everywhere. His one distinguishing characteristic was a white scarf that made him look like a dashing adventurer. We drove around the corner to a coffee shop. Avner was a charming, charismatic man, a child of the desert. I told him about my fears: Where would I go? Would it be safe? For every concern he had an answer. Finally I told him that everyone I met told me I was crazy. "I don't think you're crazy," he said. "I think it sounds like fun." I sat back, relieved. "Somehow I knew you would," I said. "And by the way, would you come along?" Blessedly, he agreed. Walking the Bible (children's edition) An Illustrated Journey for Kids Through the Greatest Stories Ever Told . Copyright © by Bruce Feiler. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from Walking the Bible: An Illustrated Journey for Kids Through the Greatest Stories Ever Told by Bruce S. Feiler All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
