The Beginning Reader's bible

I was surprised when I opened my mailbox one day and found a beautiful, hard-back Bible. I mean, I knew it was coming, but it wasn’t what I expected. It was actually larger than I thought. The cover artwork alone made me want to drop everything I was doing and flip through this book.

The Beginning Reader’s Bible is illustrated by Marijke ten Cate and published by Tommy Nelson.  It is geared for children ages 4-8 and uses actual text from the International Children’s Bible®.

This book  has 13 stories from the Old Testament and 13 stories from the New Testament.  I appreciated that with the New Testament selections, they included Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection. In addition to the passages, there are little action points included along with the stories such as Do God’s Word, Pray God’s Word and Remember God’s Word. Included in the back are some reference charts such as all the books of the Bible, the names of the 12 apostles, the twelve tribes of Israel, and a memory verse check-off chart.

What We Thought:

I thought this was a great Bible resource. The pictures were engaging and I do like how the text had verse numbers just like the Bible. I would still consider this a story Bible though, and not a Beginning Reader’s Bible. First the large format made it more appropriate for reading at home than for carrying to church---so in that sense it seemed to function more like a story Bible. I do appreciate the large format and hardback cover though! The pages are very sturdy too and I know this will hold up to lots of kids flipping through the pages. Secondly, there is still just a small portion of stories picked from both the Old and New Testament. I do like the passages picked—though some could have used more text. I think I would call this book more of a transitional story Bible. This Bible seemed like the perfect reading age for a 7-8 yr. old, while younger children would enjoy being read to from this book. I know that we will use this Bible often and am glad to have it on our shelf.

Disclosure: I was given this book for review purposes only. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.