Book Review: "Ruth and Naomi" an Adventure Bible, I Can Read book

This book is a simple retelling of the story of Ruth and Naomi from the Bible. It is geared toward kids 4-8 years of age and is classified as "Reading with Help" level 2. As with other books in this series, it has bright colorful pages and easy to read sentences. The book mostly follows the Biblical account of the story with some simplification (it doesn't talk about the Kinsman redeemer aspect). There were a few things that bugged me about the book, however. First, it opens with Elimelech, Naomi, Mahlon, and Chilion pictured at home in Israel. The boys appear to be about 4-6 years old. It says that they "had to move far away". The Bible just says that they moved to Moab and I always got the impression it was a lack of faith that caused them to leave. But that could be my own opinion, I guess. But the very next page in the book mentions "one day...Naomi's husband died and later, her sons died, also". No mention of the ten years they'd been there and suddenly there are wives of the sons. It is confusing as to why there are wives when the boys seemed to be so young. I thought that would be confusing to kids. When Naomi returns to Israel, the book says she was happy to be home. The Bible seems to disagree since Naomi told everyone to call her Mara which meant "bitter" (doesn't seem to happy to me). Also the book says that Naomi was so thankful that Ruth and Boaz got married that she jumped in the air. I felt this was quite a stretch from the Biblical account. Overall, I thought the book was nice and would be good for beginner readers to be able to read stories from the Bible. I would just recommend having them read it to you so you can supplement and explain further.

"Ruth and Naomi" is available in paperback:

• Age Range: 4 - 8 years
• Grade Level: Preschool - 3
• Series: I Can Read! / Adventure Bible
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Zonderkidz (September 1, 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310746507
• ISBN-13: 978-0310746508
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.1 x 9 inches

and in Kindle edition:

• File Size: 2391 KB
• Print Length: 32 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
• Publisher: Zonderkidz (September 1, 2015)
• Publication Date: September 1, 2015
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishing
• Language: English
• ASIN: B015JUSLOC

I received a free copy of this book to give my honest review through the zblogsquad program. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I received no other compensation.