I have been looking for many months for a Bible storybook to read to Caroline. I cannot find anything I like.
I strongly dislike the ones with the cartoonish drawings which eliminates pretty much everything from the big books stores and the Christian book kitsch stores. I think the cartoon drawings trivialize the importance of what is being read, even if it isn’t straight scripture.
Someone online recently recommended The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes by Kenneth Taylor – the OLD version with the illustrations that look like fine art. I am not sure if they mean The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes
This is what I am looking for in terms of the artwork. However, before I order one I am wondering about the content. I know it will not be straight scripture, but if anyone has one I’d like to know if the content accurate is accurate. I don’t mind if it is simple because she is a toddler. I’m just wondering how true it is to the Scriptures.
Thanks to anyone who can help! Or if you have another suggestion of a book with high quality illustrations that would be great, too!
My mom bought my brother and I the first one to use in our homeschool. I still remember the illustrations, though I know I was really tiny when she read it to us. I can’t remember the content, but I doubt it was anything really controversial, or she wouldn’t have gotten it for us. If I were you, I think I’d go with the older version, just in case they changed content in the ’90s. If you don’t mind waiting, I can ask my mom to see if she can find it, and you can email me about it.
Ooops, I meant really tiny when she first read it to us. I know we used it several years… =)
I have the older one and love the illustrations. I’m pretty sure that the new one has different illustrations. My children (22, 20,14) reallly enjoyed looking at this before they could read and then reading it on their own when they were older.
I’m not familiar with the story Bibles you mentioned. A couple of years ago our pastor recommended The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine F. Vos. He said it was as close to Scripture as he could find. Our church purchased several copies for families with young children and I have seen it at our state homeschool conference. I would imagine it can be found on-line. There are a few pictures, but not with every story. The original copyright date is in the 1930s and it doesn’t appear that the art work was changed since then. I’m not crazy about the picture on the front with Jesus and the children, but if it really bothered me I could put a cover on the book. The individual stories have been short and interesting enough to hold our pre-schoolers attention. I know this doesn’t partain to the Bible storybooks you mentioned specifically, but thought it might give something else to consider.
Hi Sallie,
We have the first one. The original copyright is 1956. The pictures are beautiful (my kids love looking at them) and the content is accurate and includes a lot of questions to ask. You are welcome to borrow ours to take a look at before you buy one if that’s the one you choose. Also, the library has it so you could check it out there too. We use The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine F. Vos for older kids. Not many illustrations, but they are similar in style to the ones in The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes. Hope this helps.
Barb
I also have found My Picture Reading Bible to See and Share
by V. Gilbert Beers and The Bible Illustrated for Little Children
by Ella K. Lindvall to have lovely illustrations. Unfortunately, they are out of print. You can still buy them used on Amazon, but they don’t have a picture of the book, so you won’t be able to look at the cover to see if the art work meets your criteria. I really like having more than one Bible story book to read to my littles, because each author includes different details and different stories. I also want to prevent my children from only thinking of one illustrator when “seeing the story” in their mind. Both of these books tell the stories in conversational tones with appropriate questions for toddlers. Happy book hunting. I so enjoy this aspect of parenting
Paula
Thank you so much ladies! This was very helpful! I will look into the other books mentioned as well.
Paula said:
This is such a good point! Thank you!
Oh. my. I seriously have to restrain myself when it comes to buying books for Caroline. I love hard cover picture books, especially gorgeously illustrated ones with great stories. Must. practice. restraint. 😯
Hi Sallie,
. You should be able to look at sample pages online to review the artwork and the story content.
This is the one that I picked up at a yard sale, The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes
My 3 1/2 yr. old son loves it and always begs for just one more story. As far as I can tell, its very true to the Bible, but its very simple and sometimes leaves out details that I think are important. We nearly always discuss the story and then talk about how it can impact our lives. We’ve read thru it several times now, and it’s never dull for him. In fact, the binding is coming loose from being carried and loved all over the house.
The artwork in this newer edition is not what I call “fine art” but is suitable for small children. My son enjoys just sitting quietly and looking at the pictures sometimes. I don’t think its too cartoonish — at least it doesn’t remind me of the Looney Tunes books my MIL sends him. ;-(
I have several other Bible story books as well, eg. Egermiers, and another one that I can’t remember the name of. They seem a little more advanced to me, and do not hold his interest as well, and we will probably read thru those as part of 1st – 3rd grade homeschool.
I don’t remember the content, but we had the Taylor book in our home growing up and I adored looking at the pictures. They were so, so beautiful, and they wooed my heart. My mom still has it and I had completely forgotten it. I think I’ll ask her to read it with my children when she has them at her house.
We are curently using The Big Picture Story Bible
by David Helm. The illustrations are too cartoony for my taste, but the content is wonderul. Perhaps using the Taylor book as a balance would be helpful! I liked what someone mentioned in these comments–not wanting our kids to picture one illustrator for the stories.
Sallie, don’t restrain yourself too much when it comes to books! I have many picture books that we read over and over again and my children still have their favorites. One of our favorites is Roxaboxen. I have a copy for all of us. 🙂
I loved being able to pull a book off our shelves that had to do with any subject we were studying. We learned history through reading books. You can never have too many. 😉 😉
i know you’re not into the cartoonish type of drawings and these might be a bit too much like that for you but i have heard VERY good things about these as far as biblical accuracy so i thought i would mention them.
https://orders.koorong.com/search/details.jhtml?code=0310708257 (book link)
https://girltalk.blogs.com/girltalk/2007/05/the_jesus_story.html (review link)
https://orders.koorong.com/search/details.jhtml?code=1581342772
https://girltalk.blogs.com/girltalk/2005/07/andrews_favorit.html (recommendation link)
I just wanted to add that the Ella K. Lindvall Read aloud Bible stories have a completely different artist and are much more cartoony. Having said that my children love the book when they are toddlers.
We love the Tomie DePaola’s Book of Bible Stories
… The artwork is gorgeous and even my husband (an Orthodox priest!) approves of the content! Your library may have it or you can snag it on Paperback Swap like we did!
We like the Rhyme Bible.
Every time I read it, I’m amazed that it’s so Biblically accurate given how well it rhymes. You can preview a bit online:
https://www.amazon.com/Rhyme-Bible-Storybook-Linda-Sattgast/dp/031070197X
One of our pastor’s daughter’s (and now a pastor’s wife herself) recommended this one, it looked good but I haven’t seen it myself:
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Storybook-Bible-Every-Whispers/dp/0310708257/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233220240&sr=1-1
Her Mom (our pastor’s wife) read a bit from it, the little she read sounded good.
Elaine said:
Now, don’t be encouraging bad behavior!!! 😉
Ok, seriously, I am good at restraining myself. I could easily drop $100+ every time I go in the bookstore. Hmmm…. Might be an interesting poll question… How much do you spend annually on books for your children?
I have a Bible story book called, “My Very First Bible” by L. J. Sattgast and we started reading to our son at 15 months old and he absolutely loved it until he was about 5 years old. Each page is very colorful and has realistic Biblical pictures that capture and keep even very young toddlers attention. The stories are short but accurate. The book is out of print but you can find them on Ebay or other online bookstores.
Here is a link to what the book looks like:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=My+Very+First+Bible%2C+L.+J.+Sattgast&x=14&y=15
And here are the reviews from the book:
https://www.amazon.com/review/product/1565073525/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1