My Bible Adventure: A Review

My youngest child doesn't go to Sunday School (we call it Creation Station).  And I'm ok with that, since Creation Station meets during worship, and I want him to be in worship.  However, because he hasn't been going to Creation Station, he's not really learning the stories of the Bible.  I mean, he knows the biggies, but a lot of other stories are lost to him.  Enter My Bible Adventure Through God's Word: 52 Bible Stories for Kids.

We do have family devotions each evening, and most recently, we've been reading the actual Bible--but there is a lot of--dare I say--boring--stuff in there, at least it's boring to 9 year old boys.  Before that we were reading a devotional book, but while the book contains scripture passages, they're just a few verses lifted out of context.  I want my kids, at least at this age, to learn the stories of the Bible, so that when they start digging deeper as teens and adults, they will have an overall context in which to place their readings.

My Bible Adventure Through God's Word contains 52 stories.  Each six-page chapter includes the scripture, taken from the International Children's Bible, a brief explanation, a prayer, and "Take It With You," which is a one-sentence summary of what the story can mean for Christ-followers.  For instance, the "Take It With You," for the creation story is "In creation, God gave me all I need."  Each chapter is written by a different pastor, children's minister, or leader who has a heart for helping children become lifelong believers.  The publisher's suggested ages are 8 and up or grades 2-5, and I would say those are accurate if you're expecting the child to read the devotions, but it's definitely great for all ages to listen to and read.

I like this book--it is just what I was looking for, and while it's not possible to include every single Bible story in this one book, it does hit on the big ones, and some not so big ones, too.  The stories are chronological, following the flow of the Bible.  The length of each chapter is just right to stretch into two nights of reading: we read the scripture passage the first night, and the explanation, prayer, and take it with you the next.  Doing it this way, we are able to remind the kiddos what the story was about and reinforce it the second day.

There are two things I'm a little disappointed in.  First, in order to fit the scripture into 2-3 pages, it is often necessary to abridge the content, so sometimes there are gaps in the story as the text jumps a few verses or to the next chapter.  This bothers me because some details are necessarily left out, and because sometimes the transitions are less than graceful.  Second, sometimes the explanation really just summarizes or repeats the scripture passage with little to no commentary.  This seems to vary depending on the individual author, and was more bothersome when we were reading each chapter straight through in one sitting--basically reading the same thing twice.

Bottom line: This is an excellent resource to teach children the stories of the Bible.

I received this book for free from the publisher through Book Look Bloggers in exchange for my honest review.