In the Days of Noah

First published in 1946 with the d’Aulaires’s beautiful lithographic prints, this tale of the first colony at Jamestown is told from the perspective of the princess daughter of the mighty chief Powhatan. When the Natives judge the white man’s magic as evil, John Smith is condemned to death only the intervention of Pocahontas saves his life and a tentative friendship is established between Pocahontas’s tribe and the new colonists. The King of England sends a crown, rich robes and a royal bed to honor Powhatan and he is pleased, but the white man’s insistence that the Indians give them corn to sustain them through the long winters threatens their tenuous relationship. Pocahontas’s ultimate marriage to John Rolfe, the birth of their son, their voyage to England and presentation to the King and Queen is the stuff of fairy tales except that it is one of the great true stories of America’s earliest days.

“Thus says the LORD: Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls”(Jer. 6:16).
Christianity is a faith in love with history. God took on human flesh and dwelt among us. The Spirit carried that divine work over the centuries, providing courage and maturity even amid our imperfections.

Christians find their true family line not through tribes and ethnic blood but in the bond of faithfulness and shed blood that has united our family for millennia. We too often view Church history as the story of obscure aliens instead of the lives of brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers.

In this collection of forty-six brief biographies for children, Hannula sketches the stirring trials and triumphs of many famous and some lesser known figures in our family of faith including Augustine, Charlemagne, Anselm, Luther, Bunyan, and C.S. Lewis. Through them we can begin to enjoy the old paths and find rest for our souls.