With a Mighty Hand: The Story in the Torah

For thousands of years, the stories contained within the Torah—the first five books of the Hebrew Bible—have been passed down, revered, studied, and wondered at. From Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood, and Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, through Jacob and his twelve sons, Joseph and his coat of many colors, and finally to Moses, who led his people out of slavery in Egypt and accepted God’s Ten Commandments, these stories tell the history of the Jewish people and their relationship with God.

In this unique volume, author Amy Ehrlich adapts the five books of the Torah into a single narrative, focusing on the familiar stories and figures while retaining the complex beauty of the sacred text. Fine artist Daniel Nevins brings these stories to resonant life with his evocative and luminous paintings. The result is a gift for listeners and families to savor, share, and treasure.

Amy Ehrlich is the award-winning author of more than thirty books for children and young adults. She also had an illustrious career as an editor of books for young readers and worked with many of the great authors and artists in the field. About With a Mighty Hand, she says, "I've always been fascinated by the Torah -- both as an object and as a repository of stories. When I set out to create a version of the Torah, I wanted to make it accessible without sacrificing its power and strangeness and the rhythm of its language. I decided to write it as free verse and to focus on the characters and the heart-stopping drama in the narrative." Amy Ehrlich lives in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.