Who was Moses book review

Often times we treat figures from the Bible like they are figures from an episodal TV show. They show up for their episode, but it doesn’t affect anything else in the show after they disappear. Our Bible lessons are episodic, and do not connect one to the other as a general rule. Who Was Moses by Danika Cooley strives to help forestall that problem. This will tie in great with my overall Moses Unit.

(Danika gave me a copy because she’s awesome and knows I like books like this, opinions are my own, and there are affiliate links to the book in here)

What is Who Was Moses?

I’m guessing this book follows similar to the other books in the Who Was series, and gives an overview of the life of the person it is talking about.

The difference between this book and others in the style is that it’s a biblical figure, so it’s quoting the Bible. You can tell it’s not the same book series because the cover style is different.

Or maybe that’s just me who sees the difference in illustration style, it’s close but not exactly the same. I’d guess Jeff would not see the differences.

It’s written on about a 3rd-grade reading level, an early chapter book with lots of pictures throughout. The chapters are short, and I was able to quickly scan the book in about an hour.

The chapters are written in a short conversational manner in an informal style.

More about Moses on my site

Over the years I’ve had some really cool posts about Moses with many different crafts and projects.

• 10 Commandments interactive prayer stations
• Moses and the Burning Bush
• Frog stuffie craft for Plagues part 1
• baby Moses craft
• 12 spies bookmark craft

What are the great things about the Who Was Moses book?

Going back to my introduction, Danika points out how Moses connects to the greater story of the Bible, both pointing it back to the beginning of Genesis (yes only one book earlier), but also pointing it thousands of years forward to Jesus and the New Testament.

This is important because too many people now think Christianity needs to be unhitched from the Old Testament, and in particular from the books that Moses wrote. Danika goes through and covers his life in a way that doesn’t whitewash the bad parts. Moses still murders a man when he loses his temper, and he still struggles with insecurity, but it also talks about how he trusts God.

It also clearly points out Moses was wrong.

Because Moses is a historical figure, he needs to be placed in history, and that is what Danika does in this book. At the back of the book there is an entire timeline given Egypt and the major events of the Old and New Testament.

The timeline in the back of the book includes a few footnotes discussing dating of events. The dating system we used was created long after the events discussed, and there is still disagreement on when events happened. This is briefly addressed as to which dates she chose, but obviously that is not something useful to discuss for a book at this age level.

What is this book not?

This book is very different from the last book I reviewed for Danika, Bible Investigators Creation, which was clearly a Bible study designed for elementary kids.

This is more like a book designed for kids who are writing a history report or a report for Bible class.

I still really like this book, because we also need this type of book.

But, I do not want you to buy this book thinking, “I’m buying my kids a cool Bible study on Moses,” because that’s not what you’re getting.

Instead it’s more like a long-form devotional or a long biography with devotional mixed throughout.

I don’t know, but I like it. I would have handed it to my kids to read it when they were younger.

Coming soon:

Reviews for: Why Did the Exodus Happen? and What Was the Tabernacle?