“Five-Minute Bible Stories”

by Lois Rock, Illustrated by Richard Johnson (Augsburg Fortress, 96 pages, $17.99)

This book pulls 20 of the kid-friendliest Bible stories from the Old and New Testament and retells them with efficiency and a bit of attitude.

The prose is sometimes poetic. In describing the Creation, Rock writes, “From the brown earth came pale green seedlings.”

After the rain stops and the floodwaters recede, she writes, “Noah and his family and all the creatures looked at the beautiful colors arching across the sky, like the arch of a gateway to heaven.”

The dialogue is often more clumsy but for the most part is appropriate for the target audience of 4- to 8-year-olds.

Each story is introduced with some background information, but oddly there is no reference to the biblical verses from which the stories come.

Johnson’s illustrations are cheerful and whimsical, offering visual details that add clarity to the tales. The Tower of Babel is majestic. The king of Egypt looks terrified by the frogs surrounding his throne. The fish that swallows Jonah looks friendly despite its larger-than-life size.