The story needs more work. The language seems choppy. Based on a true story, I found the illustrations the strongest feature of this book.

I Came From The Water by Vanita Oelschlager is an interesting book though it fell a little short for me. The story of Moses itself is interesting because it teaches us more about Haiti and the difficulties of living there, but the telling of the story felt very choppy and I struggled to stay connected to it. The illustrations are colorful and I can see the appeal to children but some of them just feel like different objects were randomly thrown together without connecting will into one big picture. I did enjoy the photographs in the back of the book that had more in depth information.

‘I Came From the Water’ is a heartbreaking, but hopeful story told in the perspective of a boy in Haiti who experienced both catastrophic flooding and a devastating earthquake during his young life. The story is engaging and explains the hardships faced in Haiti using language that is easy to understand. The illustrations are gorgeous and the content is heavy. The tone of the book is uplifting and religious (Christian). Overall, a wonderful book that would be perfect to teach children about natural disasters and the importance of helping.

Thank you to NetGalley and VanitaBooks for providing an ARC of this book.

A nonfiction book about a young child's journey after losing his entire family. Moses is an inpiration for all! Natural disasters cause his life to be turned upside down but he maintains a positive attitude regardless of them.

I came from the Water is an inspiring story of a little boy named Moses who lost his family in a Haitian flood. Moses describes his story in detail that will help children find compassion for others. Moses says he was given the name Moses by the sisters in his children's home because he was found in the water. He shares with us what it is like to grow up in his orphanage

The writing doesn't flow well throughout the story, despite the engaging content. I would prefer to leave out the white savior mentality that flows throughout the parts with the priest in the story. I don’t see me reading this story aloud in it’s entirety, but it’s definitely worth a recommendation. My daughter loves every bit of the book, but I find myself skipping over the few parts that feel problematic to me.

The publisher provided an ARC through netgalley. I have voluntarily decided to read and review, giving my personal opinions and thoughts

This is an odd book because it comes from a personal account by the author of meeting the young boy who is the subject of this story. Told to her through a translator, it makes a great tale of survival during the Hurricane, named Jeanne, which hit Haiti in September 2004 causing serious flooding and other issues in the city of Gonaïves, which is tucked under the south coast of the northern promontory of Haiti.

The problem is that I have no way of telling if this is true, and neither does the boy. This is the story he told, but there's no way of learning now how well he remembers it, or even whether it may have been augmented by suggestion or by his own imagination over the years. While I have a good opinion of this author and have positively reviewed many of her books, I have to express doubts here. She makes no mention of interviewing anyone who might have recalled finding this boy, which to me calls the reliability of the story into question.

Everyone loves an inspirational story, but all I can say in this case is that it sounds highly improbable, and while it may be true, presenting it as a modern Moses story based on a child's hearsay alone is taking things too far for my taste. Children's minds and memory being as malleable as they are, I have to doubt this and frankly wonder about the motive of a writer who presents a story like this. Because of all these doubts and misgivings, I cannot rate this as a worthy read.

This is a children's picture book that tells the story of little Moses, an eight-year-old boy from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Moses earned his name in infancy after being rescued from a river in the flooding that destroyed the city after a hurricane in 2004. Moses then went into an orphanage where he later shared his story with Oelschlager. To start on a positive note, I'll mention that the illustrations done by Mike Blanc were absolutely beautiful. They were colorful and the way he separated the images on his pages with river-like strokes carried the theme of the book from beginning to end. The writing was not as appealing. The story is written in first person and much of it focuses on Moses' early years and the tale of his rescue from the river. I find it difficult to believe that this child remembered these events in great detail. I think it would have been better if the title page said "as imagined by Vanita Oelschlager" rather than marketing this book as a biography. We also jump around a lot between different events in this boy's life, from the disastrous to the mundane and there isn't a good flow from one to the next. Finally, the story is highly religious, given that I assume the orphanage where Moses was as is a Catholic organization and I'm not sure if the themes of religion, natural disasters, death and Heaven (or the alternative) belong in a one children's book. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I Came From the Water. A true story about a young boy from Haiti named Moses who lives in the children’s village. His village was destroyed during a flood in 2004. This story is full of sadness and destruction as well as hope and happiness. It is a great book for children. The illustrations are beautiful and filled with color. The story is written like a child speaks and I love that.

Uplifting, hopefully told version of events in Haiti, told from the point of view of Moses, a boy who lost all his family as an infant and lives in a children's village. A good starting point for a conversation.

I love how this is a story of an actual child in Haiti, I also love that she donates a portion of her sales for the book to the organization featured here to aid the country. I quite enjoyed the art in this book, the story was also very sweet, kind of sad but not written in a way that would have a child in tears. It's strange to see how quickly things happened there, and how little we hear about it in the US, or how short lived our experience with it is, how quickly we forget that Haiti still needs help. I'm glad this was written to help bring more awareness. I loved it!

I really enjoyed this book. It is a beautifully illustrated book, with clear and simple text. As a school teacher I would use this book to read to my students. It tells the story about other children in the world and how they each live.

Pros: This book will bring tears to your eyes. I volunteered to help with the rescue after the hurricane, so I understand the aftermath, and it was heart-wrenching. This story will tell the journey of how a baby was given a different path to a new life, and how he would be helpful for other children like himself. The title is befitting, and it needs to be heard and read by many children. It is simply beautiful, and the story at the end will set your heart free.

Cons: None! Awareness is critical, and if you ever doubt donating for good causes, then read books like these to help you make the right decisions because every penny counts.

3.5 stars.

I Came From The Water by Vanita Oelschlager and illustrated by Mike Blanc tells the story of Moses, a young boy in Haiti who lost his family due to flooding. It is a sweet story of resilience and the ways that children can show us the future, even when times are tough. I think any child who has struggled could probably relate to it.

It is short and a simple read, which makes it accessible for most children, and it is a good primer for the trauma Haitians have faced over recent years thanks to natural disasters.

The illustrations are vibrant and definitely appealing to look at.

I would recommend this, especially for younger readers, to those looking for an introduction to the social impact of Haiti's ecological struggles or to those looking for a book showing the resilience and forward thinking of children.

I don't like giving negative reviews to books that are based on the lives of real people, but I also can't justify giving positive ratings to books that I did not like.

I Came From the Water is filled with so much conjecture, which is understandable, given that Moses was found as a baby and couldn't tell his story to anyone. I probably could've overlooked that, if the text and pictures hadn't been so hair-raisingly creepy. Throughout, the priest, nuns, and other helpers are almost deified; the pictures of Father Rick are especially cringe-worthy (he often has his arms raised up like Jesus, with a beatific smile on his face). The adults are absolutely idolized, and there's one rather cringe-worthy bit where Moses refers to the author as a "nice lady". (How does she know that's what he thought of her? Maybe he thought this nosy foreigner was annoying.) Then there's the part of the book that talks about the cholera outbreak after the 2010 earthquake. This part of the book really should be updated, as it's now believed that UN peacekeepers from Nepal brought the disease to Haiti. (As it is, the information contained here could scare some kids half to death. The book states: "Cholera comes from drinking dirty water or not washing your hands before you eat." I think it needs to be clarified that you're probably not going to get cholera if you forget to wash your hands, especially if you're not living in a disaster zone!)

I think part of the problem here is that the book is written in a first-person perspective from Moses's point of view. But it's not well done. It seems like an adult trying to adopt the voice of a child and failing miserably. Moses comes across as extremely naive and way too juvenile. I think I would've rather seen this story told in the third person, with less projection on the part of the author and other adults. (The fact is, nobody knows Moses's background. They shouldn't be making one up for him; it's his life, not theirs.)

The pictures are a mixed bag. They're colourful and depict the story fairly well. On the other hand, there are a few weird pictures that look almost like religious iconography. Yes, running a hospital and orphanage is a noble cause. But it doesn't make one a god.

I thought I would like this one more than I did. And perhaps, if it had been told in a different way, I might have liked it. But it relied way too much on a badly done child's voice and too many adults patting themselves on the back. Unfortunately, I can't recommend this one, even though Moses's story is interesting.

As a kid in a convent school, I read a story of Joseph and enjoyed it a lot. Especially the dream interpretation part of the sheaves bowing. I didnt know much about Moses other than the bush reference.

This was a good story to read with my child. This story is beautiful with a river running through many pages and a small baby in a basket as a motif. It is a testament to the generous hearts of many.

Later on we looked at a short kids version of Moses story and earthquake.

Loved the map introduction to Haiti.

I really struggle with Vanita Oelschlager's writing style. It is unfocused, lacks explanation when bringing new elements to the story, and overall needs more editing regarding the structure. The illustrations were of poor quality, and quite violent for children during the flooding. This is a heavily handed catholic book where the doctor and the preacher are the only white people of the story, and portrayed as heroes. I didn't like the illustration about the grandmother and the text that implies that she let Moses float away. I didn't like the inclusion of a boy sitting on the text box, it was very goofy.

This would be an excellent book to read to children suffering from an unexplained natural tragedy. The story is told from the perspective of a child who has experienced great loss but through love has recognized blessings. It is always good for children to read about other kids who have survived what some of us can only read about.

An excellent book suitable for young readers, particularly for students learning about natural disasters or the country of Haiti.

The illustrations were well done and helped add atmosphere to an otherwise straightforward story about a young boy’s life in Haiti and the changes it has gone through.

The end of the book includes interesting facts about Haiti and the young boy whose story is being told, making this a book that is easy to use in a classroom, though children who read this book on their own might be disappointed to find that it’s not a magical story about a boy coming from the water.

More consistency in font could be considered, as it sometimes seemed as though the “special” font was used for the first word or phrase in a section of text, and in other places was used to emphasize important ideas. This could lead to confusion in children reading the book to themselves.

Moses’ story is an important one, and it was well-told in this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for a copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I came from the water is a beautiful, and emotional story .
Based on true life events about a young boy from Haiti. Named Moses as he "came from the water , Just like the baby in the bible.
This book covers the floods and earthquakes that shaped and took the lives of so many.
It is a beautifully illustrated book,with clear and simple text.
This is a great book to read with and to children to help teach them about the lives of other children in the world an help them appreciate their own lives a little more.

I like it when a book that is written as fiction is based on actual events that occurred. To me, when a fiction book incorporates an event it makes is far easy to engage students in learning about an event and the impact it has on the people there. Having written that this book just doesn't quite tick the boxes for me.

The story is written in first person by Moses - though his actual name is unknown I presume since he was put in a basket and carried downstream (a Bible reference and how he got his name of Moses). The problem is he tells the reader that he lost his mother, father, brother, sister, and grandma - but how can he know that when he is a baby? How can he know that but not his name? For me this was a rather annoying aspect of the book.

The other element that lets this book down is the "and then" concept. There were floods AND THEN the earthquake AND THEN the cholera. While yes, those things occur that's a lot of heavy subject material to take in for a child on what is already a pretty confronting book seeing as how the boy is an orphan now.

This book would most likely work best in Christian faith-based schools who look to teach empathy through biographical resources. It's just not a book that I would find useful.