Come and See the Baby Jesus!

Come and See Baby Jesus! is part of The Beginner's Bible series.

To encourage interaction, this large Christmas boardbook offers 50 fun lift-and-see flaps. These stretch the reader's education beyond the Christmas story to basic foundations in counting, colors, shapes, animal sounds and animal babies. Each two-page spread focuses on one of these areas of learning, while also providing a short segment of the biblical account of Jesus' birth. It begins with the angel's announcement to Mary, includes her journey with Joseph, the angels' appearance to the shepherds and finally the birth in Bethlehem.

The illustrations by Kelly Pulley follow the same innocent, cartoon style of all the books in this series. They feature distinct outlines, plenty of bold colors and an attractive airbrushed look.

What I Like: My kids love lift-the-flap books. I like that the story prompts kids to discover hidden elements in the illustrations with questions like "What shapes can you find?" or "What sounds do Mary and Joseph hear?" The book format is big and sturdy and should stand up well to toddler love and abuse.

What I Dislike: It offers no biblical references. Also, the text doesn't flow well. It seems stilted and awkward, which gives more focus to the general education aspects than to the biblical teaching.

Overall Rating: For toddlers and preschoolers, I rate this "Very Good." For kindergartners and up, I give it a slightly lower rating: "Good."

Age Appeal: The publisher says "3 and up." I recommend 2-5.

Publisher Info: ZonderKidz, 2009; ISBN: 0310717124; Boardbook; $9.99

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Special Info: There are several books within The Beginner's Bible series. Follow this link to see which of those titles we have reviewed here at CCBR.