Our Favorite Children's Bible

We have a fair collection of children's Bibles that we've obtained through the years. All of them do a decent job of retelling the Biblical accounts of important people, the life of Jesus, and have cute or artsy pictures to accompany each. However, we recently got one that really blows ALL of them out of the water. It is truly the best Children's Bible we've ever read - its one that even adults can enjoy and even learn from - I'd actually even recommend it to new believers! It is The Jesus Storybook Bible.

What makes it so good? Well, for starters, it lives up to its tagline: "Every story whispers His name". Every single story in it reminds us of the need for a savior, God's promise for a savior, and His great, never failing, never changing Love for His people. The illustrations are winsome, and each story's length is only 2-3 pages, just the right length to keep a child's interest without being too brief, as many Children's Bibles tend to be.

I recommend the Deluxe version which includes audio CD's of a read-aloud of the Bible. These are AWESOME and well worth the extra few dollars compared the price of just the Bible alone. The narrator really pulls you in with his excitement and emotion expressed in reading - not the dull recitations or cutesy sing-along types that many other Children's audio Bibles have. All of our children ask to listen to the CDs as they're going to sleep at night. They're enjoyable even for me, and I am not that patient with children's CDs in general, so that says alot! Joel has listened to them so often that he'll walk around retelling a story in the same British accent as the narrator!

Now, I will say that the one potential drawback that some might have with it is that it is not "scripture" - the accounts are paraphrased with a little bit of humor thrown in here and there. The author has taken liberties, but none that I found offensive or that detracted from the point of the story or overall message. Often, I have found that the modifications actually help to simplify and drive the point of the message home better for those who might not otherwise have gotten it.

One example that comes to mind (and this comes to mind because the children find it so funny) is in describing the account when James and Peter are discussing who will be greatest in the kingdom, it actually has them saying "I am", "No, I am" "Am not", "Am, too!". Obviously, that is not an accurate representation of the exact conversation. However, things like this are not an issue for me for two reasons: One, because even though their actual words were not those, their attitudes very likely were along those lines! And, second, the children really get it - they can hear it and remember similar conversations they've had just days or even minutes before. I, personally, don't mind "liberties" taken like this. Also, since we read the actual Bible outloud to them daily, if not several times a day, they're getting their fair dose of the real thing!

The thing that amazed me most after we got it, is after reading a few stories to the children, Michael said "Wow, this is a really good Bible. We should get one for each of the little kids" Anyone who knows my husband knows he can be the ultimate critic, so that is a big thing for him to say, lol!

So if you're in the market for a good children's Bible, or even a gift for a new believer, I can't recommend The Jesus Storybook Bible enough! Its one for all to enjoy.