A Children's Bible

Evie, the first-person narrator of A Children’s Bible, is a bright but sardonic teenager who is bitterly disillusioned with her self-centered parents. Evie narrates the novel from some unidentified time in the future, presumably as an adult, but offers no information about her present life. Her teenage self is precocious and knowledgeable about environmental issues, particularly the atmospheric effects of global warming. She blames previous generations for their criminal indifference to environmental issues. She and her friends are embarrassed by their parents as people, especially their feckless narcissism and their dependence on drugs and alcohol. However, Evie deeply connects to her younger brother Jack, whom she cherishes for his open-heartedness, his love of nature, and his “sense of duty” (16). Her biggest worries center around Jack’s immediate welfare and his future in an uncertain world, where many of the animals he loves will face extinction. She is essentially Jack’s true “mother” and primary caretaker throughout the novel. Late in the story, after a weeks-long separation from her parents, she learns to feel more forgiving toward them and their failures, which she now sees as the result of weakness rather than malevolence. As she states, “They should always be thought of as invalids” (139).