Allia Zobel-Nolan - Noah's Big Boat: A Lift-The Flap Bible Book Review

During a visit from the Grandparents, my daughters were spoiled wonderfully. Not only did they get to spend lots of time with Grandma and Pappaw, but they got a few gifts along the way. One of these gifts was the book, Noah's Big Boat, A Lift the Flap Bible Book ($9.95) , by Allia Zobel-Nolan and illustrated by Steve Cox.

Noah's Big Boat Lift the Flap Book is a large sized board book with lift the flaps for story features and interactive activities to do with your preschooler while reading the book.  The book is 11.8 x 9.8 x 0.4 inches, making it perfect for lap time reading and not too big for my daughter to hold herself and "read." 

Each two pages have a short rhyming paragraph as well as prompts for using the lift the flaps on each page.  Children can play with parents learning from the prompts skills such as counting, matching, color and shape recognition and about animals.  There are approximately 6 paragraphs and 45 lift the flaps.  They rhymes tell the story of Noah and the Ark and then prompt the child for such activities as identify and make the sounds of animals going on onto the ark. Other activities include: children choosing and counting items to go on the Ark from household items to food (that children will recognize like bread or carrots); and find the hidden shapes. 

The illustrations are really wonderfully colorful and while somewhat "cartoonish" they are easily recognizable as the animals and people they are.  The colors are bright and engaging. In many ways it reminds me of Fisher Price Toys Noah's Ark.

My Viewpoint:  According to Amazon.com Noah's Big Boat Lift the Flap Book is created for children ages 4-8, however, my children are younger than that and still enjoy it.  The activities are not to advanced for them.  They also enjoy simply "reading" the book by herself (one at a time no sharing with this book) and lifting the flaps to see what they can find.  The squeals of, "Mommy look!"  are a lot of fun throughout the day and it is nice to know that the children can enjoy the book with or without me.  The "plus" of having a biblical story that is not exhibited in too scary of a way is an added feature. This is an outstanding book, thoughtfully presented, colorfully exhibited and which can be simply a story or interactive whichever way you choose to play.  Whatever you choose this board book will not make your children bored and will last a long time.