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Best Children's Bible I've Ever Encountered, 16 October 2008

I used to work for a Christian bookstore and have seen dozens of children's Bibles by various publishers. This is the best I've ever encountered. Why? 1) Accurate Bible accounts. (no extra-Biblical nonsense, like "Joseph loved his new coat so much, he even wore it when he slept!") 2) Key details of the Biblical accounts are NOT withheld or edited out. The accounts have the original meaning. (I've seen Adam and Eve stories where they just lived happily in the garden and slept under the stars, or David and Goliath stories where Goliath was smiling as he was hit with a stone.) 3) Culturally/historically relevant illustrations. Even though they are still "simple" illustrations they are the most true to the time period, culture that I've ever seen in a child's Bible for a young reader. There are some exceptions but the pictures are far from being absurd. (Another review mentioned the "bulgey-eyed" characters of another Bible. I'm familiar with it. Women are almost always depicted with pearl "Barbara Bush" earrings, Joseph sleeps on a mattress and boxspring with an orange tabby curled up at his feet, and Noah's wife carries Red Delicious apples in a basket to smiling, rather than ferocious animals. Another children's Bible we have depicts evil characters smiling sweetly while engaging in wicked activities, like trying to kill someone.) 4) Readable text in a simple-understand style for wide age span. This Bible was a gift to my 2-year old when, exasperated with our numerous but inferior children's Bibles, I commissioned my father-in-law with the nearly impossible task of finding a "good" children's Bible. Well, he came through! She loves having it read to her nightly. She loves paging through it independently and remembering the accounts. I find her doing this almost daily, unprompted by me. And I know it will serve her well until she can read the text for herself. It even has parent pages. Great for the family. 5) Rather complete. This is one of the most complete collection of Bible accounts from the Old and New Testaments that I've ever seen. 6) Fantastic price. The other types of Bibles may seem innocent enough, but I worried about what they would imply about history or culture by their anachronistic and Western (and at times cheesy) text and artwork. To conclude, I feel this Bible does a good job supporting my goal of teaching my daughter accurately (by what is said and seen) from the very start. (Thanks Grampa. You've done excellently!)