Bible Books for Kids

 Moses the Leader Now You Can Read... Retold by Rosalind Sutton Illustrated by Russell Lee Copyright 1983 Status: Not currently in print, but preowned copies are available on ebay Conclusion: Get Rid of It There are quite a few Bible stories in this Now You Can Read series.  We have a few of them in our collection and I'm always a bit skeptical of them.  Parts of them are really great and include some excellent details from the Bible, but I've seen some awful mistakes in them too. I believe that I picked up this particular book from a Little Free Library. I maintain a Little Free Library in front of our church building, so I usually grab the Bible stories that get placed there.  I used to put the Bible stories that didn't meet our requirements on the Little Free Library, but I began to feel bad about doing that.  If I knew the stories were incorrect, why should I make them available for other people from church who might not be as familiar with the true stories?...

  The Great Escape Arch Books Written by Mary Warren Illustrated by Jim Roberts Copyright 1966 Format: Paperback Status: Not currently in print, but pre-owned copies are available on  ebay  and other Arch books are available from  Concordia Publishing Conclusion: Keep (but fix with a label maker) I'll admit, I've been very disappointed with our collection of Moses books so far.  Apparently I wasn't as familiar with the details of his story as I should have been. Of the five books I have reviewed, only two of them have been accurate enough to keep in our library. On the bright side, at least I can be confident of the stories that do remain.  The book I am reviewing today has been in our library for ages, but hasn't been a favorite of either of my children (mostly because we had another book that covered the same stories that they both liked more).  However, after reading through it, I could tell that this one was a winner. It's another Arch book.  ...

  The No-Go King Hear Me Read - Level 2 by Mary Manz Simon Illustrated by Dennis Jones Copyright 1993 Format: paperback Status: Not currently in print, some pre-owned copies are available on  ebay Conclusion: Get Rid of It I've noticed that many Bible stories for kids enjoy telling about how Moses led his people across the Red Sea, but it is much harder to find a story about the plagues of Egypt. Even those stories that do include the Ten Plagues, they are typically very abbreviated. Perhaps the subject matter is thought to be too scary for kids.  The No-Go King is an early reader book, designed for children who are just learning to read on their own. The words are short and simple with lots of repetition. The back of the book says it is designed for children ages 6 to 8, but a strong kindergarten reader should be able to read this book too.  However, it doesn't have to be just for readers. I've used this book as a read-aloud for years and both of my kids liked it....

 The Story of the Ten Commandments by Patricia A. Pingry Illustrated by Stacy Venturi-Pickett Copyright 1999 Format: Boardbook Status: Not currently in print, but many pre-owned books are available on ebay Conclusion: Keep The ten commandments seems like an important story for any Christian to know, even young children. It surprises me how few versions are out there for kids to read.  This book that we have was well-loved before it ever came to be part of our Bible story library, and about half of the pages were drawn or written on. My kids don't seem to mind though, they enjoy pointing out the scribbles and saying how sad Oma would be if she saw it. (Oma is their Grandma, who was a librarian before she retired). This book begins with a super-condensed version of the exodus from Egypt, followed by a more detailed story of Moses on top of Mountain Sinai, and concludes with a very simplified version of God's ten rules. It's so condensed that the story is a bit choppy and abru...

  Moses and the Burning Bush: A Story of Faith and Obeying God The Prince of Egypt by Mary Manz Simon Copyright 1998 Format: Hardcover Status: Not currently in print, but many used copies are available on ebay Conclusion: Get Rid of It Continuing on with our Moses theme, here is another book illustrating an important moment of his life.  This book is taken directly from the Dreamworks film The Prince of Egypt .  The illustrations are straight out of the movie, and I suspect the words and dialogue are too, though it has been so long since I have seen the movie that I don't know for certain.  I'm sure it follows the movie pretty closely, but how closely does it follow the Bible? That's the important question. The Good Points: The illustrations are beautiful. It is based on a movie, which could also be paired up with the book as a fun activity. The book ends with some deep questions you can discuss with your children. They include questions from the books, but also ques...

The Story of Baby Moses An Alice in Bibleland Storybook Written by Alice Joyce Davidson Illustrated by Victoria Marshall Copyright 1985 Format: Hardback Status: Not currently in print, but many copies available on ebay Conclusion: Keep Here we have another Alice in Bibleland book.  For those of you not familiar with Alice in Bibleland yet, it is a series of book that always starts with Alice, a little girl from our time, going into a magic book to witness (but never participate in) events from the Bible.   Typically the books are pretty solid, and since they are written in rhyme, they are fun too.   This particular book is no exception to Alice in Bibleland's typically high quality. It is not the Baby Moses story we typically read in our house, since both my children have always preferred a simpler book meant for younger children. However after recently realizing how inaccurate that other story is, I've decided to remove it from our Bible story library.  L...

  Baby Moses Step Into Reading Written by Linda Hayward Illustrated by Barb Henry Copyright 1989 Format: Paperback Status: Available on Amazon  and ebay. Conclusion: Get Rid of It Moses is such a prominent figure in the Old Testament, that it is easy to find stories about him.  We have ten different Moses books in our  Bible story collection.  Some are short and cover only a small portion of his life, and some are longer and more detailed.  Either way, he's a great person for children to know about. This particular Baby Moses story is meant for children who are first learning to read. It claims that it is a Preschool-Grade 1 book, but as a former Kindergarten teacher, I can tell you that it is closer to a first grade level book.   However, this book has been in our library since long before any of my children ever learned to read and was a favorite read-aloud for both of them. The Good Points: Simple words, clear sentences. This is great for many ...

  The Donkey's Tale Illustrated by Sarah Connor Copyright 2013 Format: Boardbook Status: Unavailable. I am unable to find any copies currently available, but there may be rare version that come up for sale at ebay or in thrift stores. Conclusion: Keep if you have it (don't bother to seek it out otherwise) I originally saw this book at one of the local dollar stores. I am always excited about adding new Bible stories to our library, especially if it is one we don't already have. This book, though, seemed like it had some problems. Despite the fact that it was only a dollar, I put it back and refused to purchase it. For about a year, I saw copies of the book available the dollar stores, then they disappeared, and I still hadn't purchased one.  I finally found one at a thrift store, took the time to read through it more thoroughly, and decided that it was probably fine after all. The story itself describes the original palm Sunday, where Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey ...

  Jesus and the Little Children My Own Doorknob Book By Linda Winder Copyright unknown Format: Boardbook Status: unavailable. I cannot find any copies for sale anywhere, but they might show up on ebay or in thrift stores sometimes Conclusion: Keep (if you can find it) I'll admit, the gimmick of a book meant to hang on the doorknob seemed a bit odd to me when I first bought this one.  Then again, I bought it for my daughter when she was already 2 or 3 years old.  However, after having my second child, I have changed my opinion entirely. It is a fantastic idea for kids who are roughly 3-8 months old, but it has nothing to do with the doorknob.  This book is appealing because it has a big hole in it!  It is easy to grasp and you can put things through it!  It sounds boring to us as adults, and even to kids as old as three, but boy is that exciting to a baby. This story is such a short simple one in the Bible that it's hard to make any mistakes with it. This bo...

  Adam and Eve: A Story About Making Right Choices I Can Read the Bible No author or illustrator listed. Published by Candy Cane Press Copyright 2005 by Smart Kids Publishing, Inc. Format: Board book and DVD Status: updated version available on amazon or ebay Conclusion: Fix it with a label maker After years or not finding any Adam and Eve Bible stories at the thrift stores, I finally bought one on ebay.  It was fine for my older daughter, but it was too advance for me to read it to my younger son.  You can imagine how excited I was when I finally found this I Can Read version.  It's colorful and exciting enough to keep my son's attention.  However, since I bought it at a thrift store, it did not come with the original DVD that it claims to have.  Since I have never seen it, I cannot give my opinion of it.  The back of the book states that it contains an animated version with highlighted words for reading along, it allows the child to click on diffic...

 Adam and Eve The Lion Story Bible Story by Penny Frank Illustrated by Tony Morris Copyright 1985 Format: Hardcover Status: Not currently in print, but many pre-owned version are available from ebay . Conclusion: Keep I have always thought that the story of Adam and Eve was one of most well known stories from the Bible.  However, despite its fame, it sure it difficult to find reasonable versions as children's stories.  In fact, after a few years of searching through local thrift stores, I hadn't found a single one. Finally, when my daughter was 4 or 5 and I still didn't have a copy, I finally bought one on ebay. I had never read it before, but I had read other books from The Lion Story Bible set which seemed pretty solid, so I decided to give it a chance. It was a good choice. The book was quite true to the Bible, so we were happy to have it in our collection. It was fine at the time, since our daughter was 4 or 5 years old and very used to sitting for longer stories....

 The Tower of Babel Little Children's Bible Books Retold by Anne de Graaf Illustrated by Jose Perez Montero Copyright 1998 Format: Hardcover Status: Not currently being printed, but numerous pre-owned copies are available on ebay Conclusion: Keep This book is from a set of books called Little Children's Bible Books.  I see that there are 22 stories available, but this is the only one we own.  It has a different, yet interesting format that I haven't seen for other Bible stories.  The top of the pages tells the story, while the bottom of the pages has fun commentary from an animal. In this case, it's an ant.  According to the notes in the back of the book, the commentary is supposed to include fun actions and things to do for little children. It is suppose to make the book come alive for them.  This one only has a few activities, most of them are just comments from the ant. For this particular book, I skip most of the commentary.  I could see how it wou...

 The Story of the Tower of Babel An Alice in Bibleland Storybook Written by Alice Joyce Davidson Illustrated by Victoria Marshall Copyright 1989 Format: Hardcover Status: Not currently being printed, but many pre-owned copies available on ebay or in thrift stores Conclusion: keep Here is another Alice in Bibleland story.  For those of you not familiar with Alice in Bibleland, it is a set of books told in a rhyming pattern. In each book, Alice goes through her magic book and gets to watch the events of the Bible take place, though she doesn't participate in them. When she returns back home, she summarizes the lessons she learned from her adventures. The Tower of Babel is a neat story from Genesis that takes place immediately after Noah's flood.  However, I don't see the story put into children's books very often, which surprises me. It seems like a great story that would be very well received by children. Overall, Alice in Bibleland does a good job with this story and s...

 Jonah The Bible for Little People Text by Christine Deverell Illustrated by Richard Deverell, James Deverell, and Chris King. Copyright 2002 Format: Boardbook Status: Not currently being published, a few preowned copies available on ebay . Conclusion: Keep     This is a very short, simplified, version of Jonah meant for very young children. There is nothing inherently wrong with this book, it just skips a lot of the details and gives you a very condensed version of the story. On the other hand, that is to be expected from books meant for such young children. Toddlers, after all, only have a limited attention span and are still learning most of life's concepts.   The Good parts: The book itself is rugged and well made.  It flips up instead of side-to-side like most books, so kids think that's fun. Pictures are colorful and bright. It says that Jonah got on a ship going to Spain instead of Tarshish. I like this because it's possible a child might have heard ...

 The Man Caught By a Fish Arch Books Written by M. M. Brem Illustrated by Jim Roberts Copyright 1967 Format: paperback Status: Not currently being printed, but pre-owned copies available on ebay and in thrift stores (but other Arch books are currently available for purchase from  Concordia Publishing  ). Conclusion: Keep      Arch Books.  I both love and hate these books, mostly because they are so inconsistent. Concordia Publishing House began publishing Arch Bible stories in 1965 and are still publishing them today. I don't know how many different titles are out there, but I would guess over 100. We personally have 34 in the regularly rotation, plus another few that come out for the Christmas season. In addition, we've probably had another 20+ (at least) that we've owned but didn't keep because they weren't Biblically accurate enough for our requirements.  And that's the trouble with Arch books, some are absolutely amazing and some are complete...

The Story of Jonah An Alice in Bibleland Storybook Written by Alice Joyce Davidson Illustrated by Victoria Marshall  Copyright 1984 Format: Hardcover Status: Not currently being printed, but many pre-owned copies available on ebay or in thrift stores Conclusion: Keep The Alice in Bibleland series is actually a set of  28 picture books, each featuring one story from the Bible. I like them for the most part, and we have collected quite a set of them (12 so far).  They are told using a rhyming pattern, and illustrated very nicely. In each story, a girl from our time named Alice goes through a magic book and gets to watch, but not participate in, the events from the Bible. At the end of each story, Alice goes back home and summarizes the lessons she learned from her experiences. The Story of Jonah is certainly one of the most common Bible stories for kids, and I often see many different versions available.  However, I've seen this particular Jonah story, the Alice in Bi...