The Prodigal Son ¦ Miracles by the Sea ¦ Jonah and the Whale ¦ Adam and Eve

We are always in need of accessible re-tellings (and showings) of some of the finest stories in our culture and, with some quibbles, I'd say these have a place in the classroom and the bookshop.

I think my reservations revolve around a worry about the 'form' of the books. The themes and feelings of the stories lie not just in their 'content', but in the 'way of telling', in the poetry, the musicality of the originals. Catherine Storr is a fine narrator but she plays down the poetry in a concern to tell the story. I think that the language of the Authorised version, or of a re-telling like Peter Dickinson's City of Gold, is vital to catch the numinous nature of, say, The Fall.

Similarly, where the artists are simply 'lifelike' (like Russell) they are not nearly so effective in giving children a sense of the wonder and imagery of the stories: compare again Foreman in City of Gold. Molan is better with the raging blue-gray storms and the solitary figure of Jesus alone in the mountains: Wilkinson come closest to imaginative artistry in this quite unearthly tempest. Storr seems more at ease too with the faster-moving action of Jonah and the Miracles by the Sea. I'll definitely want to look carefully and talk about them with discriminating top juniors this term.