The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name

I am so excited about this. It just came in the mail from Amazon, and I have been bringing it with me everywhere I go like show-and-tell because I am that pumped about it. Here's the thing; I started thinking about my first-graders and how I'd love to simply read a chapter book to them from week to week rather than individual stories. That got me to wondering if such a thing existed: a chapter-book version of the Bible. In my search, I stumbled across The Jesus Storybook Bible, which is pretty close. I love the byline: "Every story whispers his name." Every story in the Bible (even the Old Testament ones) whisper the name of Jesus, even all of the best faerie-stories we read in books and see in movies echo Jesus' story. Listen to this excerpt from the introduction: read it out loud; it was meant to be read aloud: "No, the Bible isn't a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It's an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It's a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne -- everything -- to rescue the one he loves. It's like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life! You see, the best thing about this Story is -- it's true. There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every Story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle -- the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture. And this is no ordinary baby. This is the Child upon whom everything would depend. This is the Child who would one day -- but wait. Our Story starts where all good stories start. Right at the very beginning..." I'm impressed by the style and the quality of the writing and the art in this Bible. I'm impressed by the author's use of punctuation and parallelism and alliteration to make the story come to life. I'm impressed by the way she introduces ideas like God's "Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love," ideas like Home (and ontology), Good and Evil, and the Creation-Fall-Redemption narrative. Sally Lloyd-Jones acknowledges Tim Keller for "giving [her this] vocabulary of faith." I'm impressed by that too. It sounds a bit high-faluting when it's described by how it has impressed me; but I promise you, it is not. It's a children's book that young children can read themselves and enjoy. But like any good children's literature, it's a good read for adults too. Literally every story in this Bible from Genesis to Revelation hints at Jesus, speaks to the Logos, the Center of God's Story (and ours). This children's Bible is creative; it's fresh; it's intellectually ingenuous. It's what we've been waiting for. The Jesus Storybook Bible isn't a replacement for your Children's NIV, but it's a good place to start, and a good supplement, even for your personal Bible reading as well as your children's.

Best children's Bible! I've read other Bibles to my children that were great but this Bible is BEYOND GREAT. The illustrations are beautiful and the way they've translated the stories for children to understand is brilliant. What I love about this Bible the most though is that it points to Jesus from the very beginning. I've loved reading this with my children.

This is the best children's bible out there. I really enjoy the drawings, and how it is diagramed, but the best thing is how they write the bible as one long cohesive story. This is something even a lot of adults don't understand about the bible. I would recommend it even for adults who want to read for the first time, and get a general overview. Great book!

Last fall, I started attending a mom's group at our church and they were giving away copies of the Jesus Storybook Bible. I didn't win one that day but my friends told me this book was one of their kids' favorites so I ordered the hardcover copy since it would be easier for us to read and for my kids to look at. The Jesus Storybook Bible contains many stories from both the Old and New Testaments that children would be likely to hear at Sunday School or kids' groups that teach Bible lessons. The book is 351 pages long and contains 21 stories from the Old Testament and 23 stories from the New Testament. Each story ranges from about six to ten pages in length and contains beautiful, colorful pictures that go along with the stories. The pages are glossy and the book is a hardcover, measuring 6 1/2 inches by 7 3/4 inches by 1 inch. Unless otherwise noted, all of the Scripture notations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version. When we received this Bible, my kids initially weren't too interested in it but they started asking for me to read it after awhile. My son, especially, loves it and calls it the "Bible book." A lot of times I will find him sitting and looking through the pictures. I love that the stories are paraphrased for kids to make the stories simple and easy to understand, not to mention FUN! The stories are told in words that kids are likely to understand and they are easy for parents to explain if an explanation is needed. I'd say the stories take about ten minutes to read, give or take a few if you take some extra time to explain more of the story or the pictures so they would be great for bedtime stories. I cannot recommend this book enough because my kids LOVE it! They weren't too interested in this Bible at first but now they love it and ask for me to read it fairly often. There are a lot of stories that kids are likely to hear in Sunday School so this would be a great book to help reinforce their learning and understanding of them. I'm so glad we purchased this Bible for my twins, who are now four. It's a fun way for them to learn Bible stories and it would make a great gift for many children!

I bought this Jesus Story book for my 9‑year‑old grandson, and it has been such a great purchase. He loves reading it, and I appreciate how well thought out and easy to understand the stories are. The writing keeps him engaged, and he actually gets excited to come back to it each day. It’s a beautifully done book that makes learning about the Bible enjoyable and meaningful for kids.

Beautifully illustrated book with beautiful stories from the Bible made perfectly for children to understand! This is by far my favorite Bible for littles. 10/10 recommend this one!!!

I'm a pastor, and (currently) the father of two, a 2.5 year old boy and a 7 month old girl. I've been excited to introduce my children to the Bible, but totally overwhelmed with finding a Bible that would faithfully communicate the Scriptures at a level that made sense young children. I've tried three or four toddler Bibles, but they ranged from the meaningless and banal (Read With Me Bible For Toddlers) to the downright horrifying in their interpretation (The Story For Little Ones). Let me give you a couple of examples to demonstrate what I mean. The Jesus Storybook Bible, on the other hand, seeks to show how God's plan of salvation is unfolding through each story, and largely succeeds in doing so. Let me try and demonstrate what I mean. First of all, there are children's Bibles like the Read With Me Bible that are simply bland. Granted, toddlers are not going to pick up on every nuance of a story from the Bible, but the Read With Me Bible often chooses the wrong points to emphasize, entirely leaving out important points of narrative along the way. One story simply lists miracles Jesus did with no context, failing to communicate that Jesus' miracles actually anticipate and begin to realize a new world, a world where God's Kingdom and rule are breaking into the world in a new and exciting way. Now, children obviously won't grasp the entirety of this message (indeed, even the most mature Christian is still growing in their understanding) but Jesus is more than a magician, he is more than simply amazingly powerful, so why drain the miracle stories of their power? If salt loses its saltiness, what is it good for? Next, there are children's Bibles that don't simply drain the Scriptures of their power, but that actually wrongly interpret the Scriptures in horrifying ways. Two examples from The Story For Little Ones. The story of Samson says that Samson did everything God wanted him to do. This simply displays a level of ignorance about the story of Samson that is beyond belief for someone writing (interpreting) a Bible for children! Samson disobeys God at every turn, and the end of his story is that of a man so consumed by hate and revenge (and who does revenge belong to, by the way?) that he is willing to kill himself to destroy HIS (not God's!) enemies! The point is that the best God has to work with to rescue Israel is someone as corrupt as Samson, yet God is able to use even Samson to rescue His undeserving people! Consider also the end of the Bible, the book of Revelation. In The Story For Little Ones, the end of Scripture is that Jesus will return and take us away from this world and we'll live with him forever. This is exactly what Revelation does not say. Now, I'm not a dispensationalist, nor do I believe in a rapture, but that isn't the doctrine I'm criticizing here. At the end of the book of Revelation, the new Jerusalem descends out of heaven to earth, precisely because the Christian hope is resurrection, not going to heaven when you die (that's what happens to those who die before Christ's return, who go to be with Jesus in paradise). God's goal is not for His people to escape the world, but instead God is working to redeem and recreate the world. That is why Romans 8:22 speaks of the creation groaning as in the pains of childbirth, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. Okay, finally on to The Jesus Storybook Bible. This Bible works to explain the big idea, and big picture of the Scriptures at every turn. The focus is on God's love for the lost, the great problem of sin, and the great hope we have in Christ. So, for example, the story of the Exodus is told not as the story of God's great magic show, but instead on the great, mighty, and terrifying rescue of God's people from their slavery, pointing forward also to humanity's slavery to sin and coming rescue in Jesus. That is why the subtitle to this Bible is "Every Story Whispers His Name." Every story anticipates the coming of Jesus and the great rescue he brings to those who put their faith in him. This is a great Reformed concept, and a great Reformed work for children (I am an evangelical Presbyterian, by the way). Now is this Bible perfect? No, and no translation is, much less a paraphrase. Other have commented on some of the shortcomings of this Bible. Sometimes the language and tone is a bit casual, although casual doesn't necessarily mean disrespectful. Every story doesn't say as much as it could, although this is a strength rather than a weakness for a paraphrase (See: The Message). Not all of the theology expressed in the paraphrase matches perfectly with my own, but I see that as a teaching opportunity rather than a fatal flaw, not to mention that I think children should know early on that there are many ideas in the world, and not all of them are equally valid, and certainly not all of them are true. But again, the strength of this Bible is that it gets the story right, interpreting the main idea correctly and always pointing toward Jesus.

It has beautiful pictures and the stories are welll written for younger kids. I recommend and would buy it again

La manera de exponer las historias es preciosa. Nos ha gustado a todos.

Esse é de longe meu livro infantil favorito! Muito sensível a escrita, sempre apontando pra Jesus.

I don't like the book. Very disappointed to have it.

Didn't you ever wonder, what's the interest in telling my children such stories as David and Goliath ? Or Jericho walls falling down ? What do they catch when they listen such tales ? A possible morale, some violence too... So what's the point ? Finally, this Bible invites us to go further, behind the 1st sight, the 1st listening... it shows Jesus behind each story, even of the old Testament ! It is really a great tool to help adults explain biblical stories to children giving them a real meaning, without loosing sight of the main point ever : Jesus. Drawings are just so kind too ! A precious, precious pearl.... My kids and myself just love it !

Spiegare la Bibbia non è facile per nessuno, verso nessuno. Con i bambini ancora di più, perché è facile scendere nella modalità "favola" o "nomi e posti da imparare a memoria". È facile, insomma, che si parli della Bibbia in quanto tale, ma non del messaggio che contiene: il progetto di Dio sull'umanità, tramite la preparazione alla venuta di Gesù, la sua nascita, vita, morte e resurrezione. Questo libro fa esattamente questo: racconta la Bibbia secondo il fil rouge della presenza di Cristo, come regalo d'amore di Dio per noi. Ed è questo che lo rende molto prezioso e molto diverso da ogni altro io abbia visto. Non mi piace molto lo stile delle illustrazioni, ma ciò non significa che non siano ben fatte: è questione di gusti. Il libro è corposo e accompagnerà la famiglia per anni, da quando verrà letto dai genitori a voce alta, a quando i figli e figlie sapranno leggere da sé. Purtroppo non sembra esistere una versione italiana, solo tedesca, francese e spagnola. Consiglio caldamente l'acquisto perché è un libro solido, poetico, emozionale e profondo. Qualità di stampa ottima, formato facilmente portabile. Amazon e corriere impeccabili come sempre. ------------- Se la recensione è utile, per favore fai click sul pulsante. Grazie.