Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Bible Stories for Growing Kids


Bible Stories for Growing Kids, written by Francine Rivers and Shannon Rivers Coibion, has 30 stories from the Bible, 17 from the New Testament and 13 from the Old Testament.

Each story focuses on a person in the Bible. According to the author, the stories are “fictionalized” and written “from the point of view of one person. In some cases, several stories cover the same situation but from different perspectives.” The first story is about Abraham, with references about him from the books of Genesis and Hebrews. Three more stories from Genesis focus on Hagar, Lot’s wife, and Dinah. The stories are in chronological order through the Bible. Scripture references are included for each story.

Each story is 4-6 pages long, including illustrations. A section called “Growing Time” is given at the end of each one story. This section is intended for sharing with family members. It includes “interesting facts” about the character mentioned in the story; “Truths from God’s Word” that relate to the story; “Things About” each character; “Thinking about Your Life,” which has thought-provoking questions about how the story/character relates to the reader’s life; and “Praying For,” which gives some ideas of things to pray about in regards to the story’s subject matter.

The expressive illustrations by Pascale Constantin are mostly done in bright colors, but there are a few black-and-white illustrations scattered throughout.

What I like: This book of Bible stories is a bit different from any I’ve read before. There is a good assortment of Bible characters mentioned, but many of them are lesser-known ones like Jehoiada, Balaam, and Dorcas. I didn’t know who some of the people mentioned in the stories were until I read about them in the book; you might not be very familiar with them either.

I also like the fact that each story focuses on a person in the Bible. Most Bibles for kids have a mixture of stories about people, such as Noah, Moses and John the Baptist, as well as stories about events, such as the Creation, the Great Flood, or Jesus’ birth.

What I Dislike: There is a full-page illustration depicting some type of modern-day family or group setting at the end of each story, opposite the page titled “Growing Time.” I was a bit disappointed to find that there are only four different illustrations that end the stories, used repeatedly throughout the book. I realize I’m being a bit nit-picky by mentioning that, but I think it would have been nicer if each story ended with a different picture.

Overall Rating: Excellent.

Age Appeal: 4-8.

Publisher Info: Tyndale Kids, 2007; ISBN: 9781414305691; Hardcover, $14.99.

Buy now at ChristianBook $10.49!



Special Info: Visit Francine Rivers’ website. Visit the illustrator’s website.


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2 comments:

Tanya said...

I agree: this is a great book! Francine Rivers is one of my most favorite authors.

cure for candida said...

You got my favorite collections,back to my past days my mother used to read us this story book every night.