On The Bookshelf

For The Younger Set

New kids book traces path of the world of the ancestors.

PENNY SCHWARTZ
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

W

hen Bruce Feller's Walking the
Bible hit bookstores in 2000,
the 434-page book became an
instant bestseller, tapping into a
groundswell of grownup readers thirsty
for knowing more about the world once
inhabited by Abraham, Noah and
Moses.
With the 2004 release of the kids ver-
sion of the book, Walking the Bible: An
Illustrated Journey for Kids Through the
Greatest Stories Ever Told (HarperCollins,
$18.99), Feiler extends the opportunity
to a younger generation who can open
the book, travel the biblical world and
capture Feller's sense of enthusiasm and
marvel for the Bible as a living map and

guide.
The inspiration for the original book
came at a precise moment, Feiler writes,
as he stood with a friend on a hilltop
overlooking Jerusalem and realized that
the historical site of the biblical story of
Abraham and Isaac was at a place, a real
place he could visit.
"In the Middle East, the Bible is not
just a book. It's a living, breathing enti-
ty," Feller writes.
At that moment, Feller's grand sense
of adventure was set in motion. He was
determined to travel the route of biblical
stories with illustrations and photo-
graphs and write about the experience.
Feiler, a travel writer, set off on his rig-
orous, and at times dangerous, journey,
accompanied by Avner Goren, an
archaeologist, who proved to be a wise

walking companion and guide.
In a recent phone conversation from
his home in New York, Feller said his
journey with Goren took about one
year, traversing "10,000 miles, three
continents, five countries, four war
zones, and we'd go to the places and
read the stories."
But Feller, who used to direct chil-
dren's theater and once spent a year as a
circus clown, had a dream beyond his
initial venture.
"It's been a running desire of mine for
15 years to turn everything I write into a
children's book," Feiler said.
The success of the original Walking the
Bible gave him the opportunity to follow
his dream. "I wrote the book with a
smart 10 year-old in mind," Feiler said,
though the book's audience is officially
targeted from age 7 and up.
"For the kids book there's a lot of
adventure, interesting information, a lot
of gee-whiz science facts, like the fact
that manna comes from trees. That was
exciting," Feiler said.
He extends his sense of wonderment

to questions of biblical location.
In the chapter on parting the Red Sea,
Feller explains that no one knows pre-
cisely where the Red Sea was, and that
the area is now unsafe for travel because
of Islamic terrorists who live there. He
instantly engages readers with an
unsolved mystery and provides biblical,
historical and geologic clues and a sum-
mary of the biblical story of Moses.
Feller places his readers right there
with him as he and his entourage of
guides, a driver and a police escort set
out from Cairo, Egypt, and into the
Nile Delta, to cross Lake Timsah. Is this
the biblical Red Sea?
His style is contemporaneous, like an
on-the-ground travelogue, including the
problems: When they finally arrive at
their destination, large tankers may pre-
vent their crossing, and it begins to rain.
Everyone else asks to turn back and give
up, reminiscent of whining family mem-
bers on a drawn-out vacation. Feller's
persistence comes across as nearly heroic
and in the end, offers a tender and mov-
ing connection with the biblical past. II

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