Monday, May 17, 2010

I Want to Know About the Bible



I Want to Know About the Bible, written by Christina Goodings, is a reference book about the Bible for kids.

The book is divided into 20 chapters. Each chapter deals with a particular event (such as the Great Flood), a group of people (like the first Christians), or a particular person (such as Abraham) from the Bible. Each chapter covers a two-page spread with varying amounts of text and illustrations per chapter. And, each chapter includes at least one fact or definition that is set apart from the rest of the text in its own “text box.” For instance, in Chapter 5 (“Moses and the Covenant”), the word “covenant” is defined in a text box. The chapters run chronologically from the story of Creation in the book of Genesis to how the Bible was put together from various writings.

An Index is provided at the end of the book for easy location of key words and phrases used in the text.

The illustrations by Jan Lewis are bright, colorful, cartoon-like, and very kid-friendly. All the illustrations are captioned.

What I Like: The chapters are short and full of good information about the people and times of the Bible. I also like the layout as each chapter is a bit different with varying amounts of text and illustration per chapter. The good use of color also makes the pages more appealing.

What I Dislike: The blurb on the back cover of the book reads: “This book takes you back in time to some of the most ancient stories about how the world began. It retells wise and treasured stories from the great history of the Jewish people. It gives an account of a person known as Jesus Christ, whose teaching is loved and respected by millions all over the world.” The reader gets the sense that the book wasn’t intended for a Christian audience although the book is quite informative and contains reference to the Scriptures as well as bits of Bible verses throughout. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I just thought I should point that out.

Overall Rating: Very good.

Age Appeal: The publisher doesn’t give a suggested age group for the book, but I’d say it would be around 7-9.

Publisher Info: Lion Children’s Books, 2010; ISBN: 9780825478963; Hardcover, $14.99.

Buy now at ChristianBook $11.99!

Or buy at Amazon.com $13.49.


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