Naamah and the Ark at Night by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (illustrated by Holly Meade; Candlewick, 2011) captures the tradition of Noah and the flood by focusing on Noah’s wife in the evening calming the animals. Tradition suggests her name may have been “Naamah,” which means “great singer,” and Susan Campbell Bartoletti builds on that tradition by creating a soothing night-time lullaby describing Naamah singing the animals to sleep.
A note included with the text suggests that the form of Bartoletti’s poem is the ghazal (see Wikipedia for information about this ancient Middle Eastern poetry form). Even if a reader didn’t realize it was a special poetic form (as I didn’t), the poem simply works wonders in this picture book combined with watercolor collage. The colors of the animals in the collages are bright, yet the setting is subdued for the evening setting on a stormy sea.
Seeing the sleeping or otherwise rocking animals and the rolling waves of the sea tossing the ark along added to the nighttime solitude of a singing woman bringing peace to a troubled world covered in water. My 5-year-old and I really enjoyed reading this book together, and I personally loved the new perspective on the Noah’s ark. A great bedtime lullaby.
