The Long Way Home

Some stories you only understand once you have run from something yourself. Zara is about to hear one.

On a quiet shore at dusk, a girl meets a stranger resting by the water, a man who has just come back from somewhere no one should be able to come back from. There was a storm. There was the sea closing over his head. There was the dark, and the silence, and the whale.

The Long Way Home retells the story of Jonah from the book of Jonah through the eyes of a curious girl who simply wants to know what it was like. As Jonah tells it, the whole journey unfolds, the running, the storm, the swallowing dark, the prayer he finally meant. And then the part Zara never expected: that the whale was not the scariest thing he faced. Going home was.

It is a story about being given a second chance, and finding the courage to walk back toward the very thing you were running from. A gentle, unhurried picture book for ages 4 to 10, made to be read slowly and treasured for years. One of five stories in the Old Testament Collection, Volume Two.

Available July 19 as part of the complete Old Testament Collection: Volume Two. The full five-book set is available to pre-order now.

• Hardcover picture book for ages 4 to 10
• One of five stories in the Old Testament Collection, Volume Two
• One biblical story, told through the eyes of a child who was there
• Warm, faith-forward, and never preachy
• Inspired by the account in the book of Jonah