Our youngest, Andrew, is getting baptised soon (he's already 4, but each of our children has been baptised older because of parental disorganisation!). When they're baptised, our kids receive a children's Bible from their grandparents. This time, it's
The Lion Day-By-Day Bible, which I'm so impressed by that I added a paragraph to my long-ago-post on
children's Bibles:
4-8 year olds: The Lion Day-By-Day Bible. Here's that rare thing: a kids' Bible that is both comprehensive and simply written. It retells much more of the Bible than most kids' Bibles, doesn't miss the scary bits, and actually covers the whole story of Jonah! The readings (one for each day of the year) are short and well-told, and the illustrations are gorgeous.
I won't know until I've read it to my kids, but I think this might be one of the best classic kids' Bible I've seen. If it is, it will move into top spot on
my list of suggested children's Bibles alongside
The Jesus Storybook Bible and
The Big Picture Story Bible, which are stronger on biblical theology, but less strong on retelling as many of the Bible stories as well and simply as possible.
6 comments:
Ahhhhh, thanks for this very timely suggestion.
Thanks Jean, I haven't seen this one before - will track it down. xc
How can a perfectionist possibly recommend this book?! Upon looking it up, I find it has exactly 365 readings. One per day. Everyday. Religiously. Without fail. Until one day we miss. See? See my problem?!
:) Just don't read it every day, Deb - ignore the dates - that's what I'd do!! And if the story continues over several pages, keep reading. See? It is possible to overcome perfectionism!
(But I know what you mean. I refuse to read any Bible study guides with dates in them. Or if I do, I ignore the dates com-plete-ly.)
Jean, I wanted to add an update on this Bible. We found it excellent when reading through the Old Testament. Occasionally they would use a bit too much in the way of poetic licence, but on the whole it was faithful to the text and covered lots of parts of the Bible that are generally ignored in children's Bibles. The length of each day's reading was just right for our 3, 5, and 7 year-olds and some days we have even covered two readings (if we are behind). However, the New Testament readings have been very disappointing. I suspect they changed authors for the gospels. There is a large amount of content added to the text that is simply not in the Bible, especially in terms of suggested emotions and motives for various people. We've found we've had to edit on-the-go as we read aloud and particularly jarring have been some of the thoughts that they attribute to Jesus which are plainly works of fiction rather than a retelling of the gospel accounts. We're perserving at this point and hoping once we get to Acts that things improve. But it's been such a disappointment, especially as the OT was so well done. So a note of caution with this Bible.
Thanks, Deb, that's very helpful.
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