I purchased this NIV Kids’ Visual Study Bible for my highly intelligent 5th grade nephew. I loved all of the graphs, charts, and illustrations, not to mention the explanations and notes! The New International Version of the Bible (NIV) is written at a 7th grade reading level (as compared with the ESV, which is written at a 10th grade level and the KJV which is at a 12th grade level), but I think this Bible could safely be given to kids several years before that because of the great illustrations. My oldest just turned 4, so I haven’t done much research, but I would imagine that this will definitely be in the running for his first Bible.
I chose this Bible for my 14 year old nephew’s birthday, last year. It’s not a study Bible, per se, in that there aren’t as many cross references and textual notes, but it does have good introductions to each book and I loved the way it empowers young men to challenge cultural assumptions while growing in their faith. My only caveat is the publisher’s description of one of the key features, “‘Battlelines’ answer tough questions that teens have and present the Bible’s perspective on spiritual growth and contemporary cultural topics such as self-harm, sex, divorce, environmental care, prayer, drug use, underage drinking, pornography, modesty, reading the Bible, relationships, and popularity on social media.” Any time someone claims to present “the Bible’s perspective” I would simply note that it is “a” perspective as opposed to “the” perspective. Admittedly, I didn’t look very closely at these before giving it as a gift, but I would imagine that this perspective would be consistent with that articulated by the National Association of Evangelicals.
This ESV Journaling Bible is my current go-to Bible and I love it! It doesn’t have many cross-references or notes, but it’s perfect for my current needs, in that I have other study Bibles and reference books that I can grab when I need them. I don’t think I would have loved this as much in my earlier years of Bible reading, during which having a good study Bible (like this one) to explain the many different literary and cultural nuances of the Bible is especially helpful. I love the wide margins in which to take notes (with these pens that don’t bleed through), and the hard cover and elastic closure means I can keep it in my (overfilled) bag without fear that I’ll damage the pages or binding.
I recently purchased this Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible for a friend and cannot recommend it more highly! I can’t quite justify buying one for myself, right now, but will definitely love gifting it to others. It is endorsed by N.T. Wright, one of the preeminent evangelical Bible scholars in the world, today.