These Read Aloud Bible Stories (4 Book Series) have been my son’s favorite stories for the most of the last two years. I love both Lindvall’s voice as well as the theology expressed in her storytelling. I think my kids enjoy the fact that each story is about 20 pages long, so there are a lot of pictures to hold their attention. My only caveat with this series (and it’s a big one) is that almost all of the characters in the first three volumes have light skin with either pink, peach, or orange tones, including Jesus, whose skin is very light. Thus, I only feel comfortable using it while intentionally supplementing it with other books that illustrate more diversity.

 

I really love what I’ve seen of the Jesus Calling Bible Storybook. It reminds me of The Jesus Storybook Bible, except that the stories are much shorter, so I could see kids being ready for it a bit earlier. We actually haven’t used it, much, because I discovered it after my son was a bit past it. I would say it is probably most appropriate for a young-mid three year old, whereas we liked the next two after three and a half.

 

I love so much about The Lion First Bible! These stories are just a bit shorter than those in the Jesus Storybook Bible. The text isn’t as interpretive as in either Young’s or Jones’ collections. That said, I really appreciated the subtle theological/ interpretive decisions they did make. For example, this Easter I am thinking about how to teach my son about Jesus’ death and resurrection with sensitivity to his age and development. I really appreciate the way the crucifixion is handled; she doesn’t emphasize sin, guilt, or shame. Instead, she draws attention to the political dynamics of the leaders not believing that Jesus was really king. The other thing I love about this Bible is that they include a lot of stories from the book of Acts. While using this I was very aware, however, that most of the characters look pretty fair-skinned, to me. They do all have brown or black hair, but I’m still aware that they don’t look very Middle Eastern. So as with the Read-Aloud Bible Stories, I am very conscious of supplementing this with other resources.

 

The Jesus Storybook Bible is beautiful and unique in the way that nearly every Old Testament story concludes with a look forward to the life of Jesus. As such, it his highly interpretive. Besides the rich theological perspective, I also love the illustrations in this storybook Bible. Besides being beautiful, they depict a fair bit of racial diversity of various characters (in the biblical story). Just this morning I noticed that this is the first storybook Bible I’ve seen that doesn’t portray angels as blond anglos. One other thing to note is that it only includes 3 stories that occur after Jesus’ ascension- the coming of the Holy Spirit, Saul/ Paul’s conversion, and the revelation of John. This was especially striking, to me, having just finished The Lion First Bible, which contained much more about the apostles and early church.

 

Desmond Tutu’s Children of God Storybook Bible is one that I’m most excited to use when my kids are a little older. It’s probably pushing the 2-4 category for our kids, but I think this really depends on the child. For example, it highlights more violence than some others, and in this way may be especially helpful for parents who haven’t been able to shelter their young children from these realities. For mine, though, it feels a bit more mature. This storybook Bible is my favorite example of a narrator/ editor’s power in choosing which details and stories are worthy of inclusion in the collection. Tutu’s storytelling emphasizes the biblical themes of forgiveness, courage, injustice, love, and community to a much greater extant than in other storybook Bibles we’ve used. I also love  the ethnic diversity reflected in the illustrations.