An Unexpected Hero: A Bible Story About Rahab by Rachel Spier Weaver and Anna Haggard; Illustrated by Eric Elwell.

I love the Called and Courageous Girls series. This new book about Rahab joins books about Deborah, Miriam, and Priscilla in this series featuring women in the Bible. Each book highlights and imagines a little more back story for a courageous woman in the Bible who might receive a cursory mention (or be left out all together) in the average children’s Bible story book.

Despite the name, this series is definitely not only for girls. It is great, and I’d argue essential, for both boys and girls to hear stories about women in the Bible as well. I really think highlighting these women will help our girls to see themselves in a less constrained way when thinking about how they might serve God. We can all lead, teach, preach, and serve God in a variety of ways and seeing these examples of women in the Bible is crucial for all of us as we are consider who gets to teach, lead, preach, and have a say in the way the world or church works.

This book about Rahab comes out today. I was a little apprehensive about Rahab’s job description in a little kid’s book. I was grateful to see how it was handled in a completely graceful and age-appropriate way that gives us all a little more nuance to consider when thinking about why Rahab may have been a prostitute to begin with. Let me be clear: The word prostitute doesn’t even come up. This book gave a very nuanced lead-up to why she had the job she had while completely side-stepping mentioning what the actual job was. As a grownup reading this book, it really challenged my perspective and assumptions about Rahab in a way that was honestly relieving.

My kids all enjoy looking at these beautifully vivid, slightly smeary, and sometimes abstract illustrations. I can’t wait to read this with my kids over the years and to see the next books in the series.

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Who is your favorite female character from the Bible? Who would you like to see featured in this series next?

I would love to see Esther featured next. I still need to read the first two books about Miriam and Priscilla, but I really loved the book about Deborah that came out last fall!

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(Disclaimers: Thanks to @harvesthousepublishers for the review copy. All opinions are my own. This post contains Amazon Affiliate Links. Thank you!)