Meet at the Ark at Eight

This short, wry tale, likely to be enjoyed as much by adults as children, takes a fresh look at the story of Noah and the Ark. As you know, only two of each creature was allowed in the Ark, but what if there were three penguins who didn’t want to be separated, even if the smaller one with the bobble hat was a bit of a pain? What might happen then? Hub makes the most of this slight, but admittedly intriguing possibility, introducing us to only one other main character in the story, a rather harassed bossy dove. He is responsible for recruiting couples for the Ark and for keeping order on board. God is, for the most part, offstage, although he is responsible for the whole thing in the first place. And it just might be his voice addressing the dove from a suitcase that the two bigger penguins have hauled with some difficulty up the Ark’s gangplank. Ably supported by illustrator and translator, Hub has a deft comic touch which charts an amusing way past the rocks of whimsy, and avoids the dead calm of portentousness, both of which are this reviewer’s figures of speech and, thankfully, do not appear in the story. The tale comes to rest finally on the marriage of the dove (of which, of course, there is only one) and the surplus penguin, even if the other rescued animals are inclined to think that God could not possibly have sanctioned such a liaison.