The Jesus Storybook Bible : A BookLook Blogger Review

I was very excited to receive this special edition of The Jesus Storybook Bible to review. I have known about this Bible for several years, but we had never had opportunity to own it. After hearing rave reviews I couldn't wait to see it!

Grace is 7 and is almost at the age where Bible story books are too young for her, but I'm thankful she isn't there yet! She enjoyed looking at the pictures which are very unique. My older two girls thought the illustrations looked funny. The reality is they are drawn in more of a rustic style rather than being cartoonish or realistic. I personally like this style and the unique hand-crafted feel it gives to the pages. 

We used the Bible for our evening devotions for a few weeks. Grace enjoyed cuddling up in my lap and wanted to help read the story much of the time. She also asked to take this Bible to church with her on Sundays and she liked reading it during the service. She is still young enough that I do not mind if she read a Bible book during the service if she is not listening to her daddy preach. 

Here is a quote for 7-year-old Grace:
The pictures are my favorite part! 

What I really liked about this particular book was how every story told points back to Jesus. This is how we are already teaching our girls about the Scripture. It is so wonderful when we have resources which also reflect this point of view. It also presents Scripture as historical, which is not always the case. Some lesser known stories are also included which is nice as well. 

Parents should be aware that there is a lot of embellishment to the stories compared to how they are written in Scripture. I see this as the author taking come creative license to add what someone might have thought or said. This seems to be an attempt to retell the story in a fresh way. For the most part I think it is well done but there are a few instances which seem to steer a little too far from the original intent in God's Word. My older girls in particular have spent a lot of time studying the Old Testament for school so as I was reading through some of the early Genesis accounts they burst into laughter at the way it was portrayed. This did not exactly lend itself to good discussions about what we were reading afterwards. 

I'm not saying this is a bad resource, but to be aware that there is some creative license with regard to how some of the stories are portrayed and you may want to consider this before using it with your children. 

Disclaimer: I received this title from BookLook in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review. All opinions are my own.