MRS NOAH'S VEGETABLE ARK :: saving the world from vitamin deficiencies!

Age guide: 3 to 10

Mrs Noah watches Noah building an ark in the middle of a drought and does what many a wife has done – smiled indulgently, sniggered a bit about her husband’s eccentricities and continued on her merry way. 

But when Noah starts collecting giraffes, Mrs Noah starts thinking and decides that just in case Noah is right she might as well start collecting fruit and vegetable seed and cuttings. 

And then she really gets on board!  

She saves seeds in little bags, puts trees and cuttings into pots and pans and by the time the rain starts falling Mrs Noah is every bit as prepared as Noah himself. It really pays off too – even Noah wonders what would have happened without all Mrs Noah’s  veggies: 

“We’d have vitamin deficiencies, that’s what.” Mrs Noah proudly replies.

The illustrations in this cheerful picture book are crammed with detail and humour - they do give you a bit of a craving for a bowl of fruit salad! And there's so much personality shining through the animals as well as Noah and Mrs Noah.

This is not so much a religious book as one that uses the story of Noah to teach all sorts of other things – like the joy of growing and preserving your own veggies and fruit, the madness of life with animals everywhere, the joy of new beginnings, self-reliance, seeing that something needs to be done and doing it, the fun of family life and so on.

Mrs Noah's Vegetable Ark was written by Elena Pasquali, illustrated by Steve Lavis - it would be a fun present with a packet of seeds and a pot or some sort of gardening tool.