It seems that Easter would be a perfect time to give a gift of a Bible story book to children in your world. Stuffed Easter bunnies, lambs, and chicks are fun, but a Bible story book can make an important impact on a child’s life, with a long-lasting effect. For children whose parents are Christians who attend church regularly, a Bible story book would be a useful tool to help reinforce knowledge of the Bible at home.

If there is no one who takes the child to church, that’s all the more reason they need exposure to the Bible at home. Perhaps non-church-going parents would find themselves fascinated by the underlying concepts in the content they would be reading to the children.

​This Bible story book, entitled God Gave Us the Bible, was written by Lisa Tawn Bergren. That name may sound familiar. Lisa has written a whole series of “God Gave Us” books, which feature charming animal characters. She is a best¬-selling author with many books to her credit, crossing the lines of genre. Lisa lives in Colorado Springs. Her husband is a worship leader and a sculptor and craftsman. She and her husband have raised three children.

This book was illustrated by award-winning artist David Hohn. David has illustrated some of the books in Lisa’s “God Gave Us” series, along with a number of other popular books. David graduated with honors from Maryland Institute College and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Hartford. He resides in Portland, Oregon, with his family.

This collection of Bible stories begins with Little Cub having a sleepover for his forest friends on the first day of summer. Mama Bear calls all the little animals into the cabin to explain that God gave us the Bible so we could know Him better and to read some Bible stories. The animals interject questions during the stories that will help kids listening understand the stories better. I believe the presence of the animals will make the book engaging to younger children. The artwork is colorful and pleasing to the eye. The animal characters have expressive faces and seem to be more 3-dimensional, to contrast with the characters of the Bible stories.

This enticing Bible story book ends with the apostle Paul passing on the Good News. Mama Bear says the Good News has been passed all the way down to her, and now it’s her turn to pass the story on to the “kids.” She explains how the Holy Spirit helps us. She closes the conversation by saying that there will be a whole new part of the story when we see Jesus and that God giving us the Bible shows how much He loves us.

There are 22 Old Testament stories and 23 New Testament stories included in this book. It is 8” high by 7” wide and weighs 1 lb, 2 oz. It is 159 pages long. The age range targeted is said to be ages 3 to 7, which seems to me to be a pretty accurate assessment. Some 3-year-olds may not be quite ready for it, especially if they have just turned 3 recently.

The author of the Bible story book called The Jesus Storybook Bible is a British woman with an interesting background, whose name is Sally Lloyd-Jones. She was born in Kampala, Uganda, and raised in East and West Africa and a British boarding school. She studied Art History at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and the Paris-Sorbonne University in France. Sally Lloyd-Jones is a New York Times bestselling author who came to the USA in 1989 and now lives in Manhattan.

The artist who took on the assignment of illustrating this book is an Italian man named Jago Jacapo Cardillo, commonly called simply “Jago.”

Jago attended Falmouth College of Art in the United Kingdom from 2000 to 2003. He is an eclectic artist and sculptor who is called a modern Michelangelo because his sculptures are so amazingly lifelike. He lives in Cornwall, England, with his wife and daughter.

The text of this book takes the individual stories of the Old and New Testaments and makes them part of a unified book with Jesus being God’s way of salvation as the theme. The collection of stories ends with Saul becoming Paul, the dream of heaven in Revelation, and at the very end talks about becoming God’s child. The book is described as charming, yet full of theology. It was a Moonbeam Award Gold Medal Winner, in the religion category. Two million copies have been sold, and it has been translated into 19 languages. The illustrations consist of eye-catching stylized artwork with rich colors.

In one of the reviews, Sally Lloyd-Jones is described as having an “uncanny knack for storytelling.” In this book of Bible Stories, she seems to write “the story beneath the story.” For instance, in the story of the fall of man she writes that Satan had been an angel but wanted to be God. He was sent out of heaven, so he was angry and wanted to find a way to hurt God. Then she writes that, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they didn’t just break a rule—they broke God’s heart. In describing her purpose for writing the Bible story book, Sally stated that it was to show children God’s “Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.” You will find those words in the text.

This book contains 21 Old Testament and 23 New Testament stories. It is 7.6” high by 6.4” wide, weighing about 1 ½ lbs. There is a total of 352 pages. The target age is listed as 4 to 8 years, but some feel it would benefit kids up to 6th grade.

CONCLUSION:
There have been many Bible story books written over the years. These are two contemporary examples. I try to pay attention to the way a book addresses the subject of how each person can receive eternal life. There is a danger of universalist teaching creeping into our books, whether intentional or unintentional. “Christian Universalism” teaches that because Jesus died for all, everyone will end up receiving eternal life. This doesn’t line up with the teachings of the Bible. Scripture is clear that it is necessary to believe in God’s plan for salvation, in order to receive its benefit. Although most of us believe that children who die before “the age of accountability” will go to heaven, no one is certain what that age is.

In God Gave Us the Bible, Mama Bear says, “he came back to show us what resurrection looks like, if we believe in him.” The book later says, “Because of Paul, many people came to believe in Jesus.” In The Jesus Storybook Bible, Sally Lloyd-Jones described the crucifixion and the events that led up to it quite beautifully. There were a couple of wordings that I found a little unsettling at first. One was “He had done it. Jesus had rescued the whole world.” Another wording I found a little troubling at first was “Tell them I love them so much I died for them . . . God loves his children.” I feared that it left the impression that everyone had been rescued by Jesus’ death, regardless of whether they took a step of faith, and that everyone is a child of God. Yet John 1:12 clearly says that only those who believe have the right to be God’s children. The later words of the book seemed to redeem any questionable wordings. One page says, “Stop running away from God,” said Peter. “Run to him instead! So he can love you. And make you free!” And still later “Every day more and more people believed. And so it was that the family of God’s children, his special people, grew.” Paul’s words are paraphrased to say, “You just have to believe what Jesus has done and follow him.” Most reassuring of all, the very last page refers to John 1:12-13 and talks about saying yes to Jesus, believing, reaching out to take the gift, and becoming God’s child.

I hope the information I have provided has helped you decide whether one of these books might be a great tool for teaching some of the contents of the Bible to a child in your life. In my judgment, the first one I described would be enticing to children in the lower age range, or in other words, children ages 4, 5, and 6, because of the animal characters interjected into the stories and a lower word count. The second book would, I believe, be great for children ages 6, 7, and 8, and maybe even age 9, since it has a higher word count. Perhaps your knowledge of the child’s personality and comprehension level will help you decide. If the child is 4 or 5, you may want to purchase God Gave Us the Bible now, then The Jesus Storybook Bible in a year or two. Don’t forget to write their name and yours on the presentation page in the front of the book.

The stories in the first book are quite varied in length. Some portions of the Bible conveyed have little detail in Scripture, yet they are in some way significant. Maybe you can just read as long as the child is wanting more, unless it turns into a long reading merely used to avoid bedtime. Whatever Bible story book is used, I hope it will serve as an appetizer , building the child’s appetite for reading an actual Bible in depth as they grow older.