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Friday, September 24, 2010

The Big Picture Story Bible


  The Big Picture Story Bible by David Helm (Crossway)
  • Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 9.3 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
  • Publisher's Recommended Age: 4-8 (Younger if you're willing to carry it around for them. ;)

Pros:

  • Short text and big pictures on each page hold shorter attention spans well
  • Frequent questions in the narrative engage child
  • Clearly communicates that man sins because he doubts God's goodness
  • Represents God's character well (ex. love and faithfulness)
  • More accurate pictures than most children's Bibles (i.e. the Temple w/ lampstands, tables for showbread, altar, the Heavenly City, etc.)
  • Thick, heavy-duty pages

Cons:

  • The large size of this Bible is both a pro and a con.  It's great to have the large text and pictures, however, it is very hard for a two-year-old to carry around.
  • Unnecessarily simplistic in terminology, at times (i.e. boat instead of ark)
  • Oversimplifies the Passover: "Moses told God's people to take lambs and sacrifice them. He told them to put the blood over their front doors. The blood of the lamb was God's great sign." It goes on to tell of the Lord passing over the families that had blood over their doors; however, it fails to answer the question, "Why?" This is a great opportunity to pause and explain the "why" further (there had to be a blood sacrifice for sin), correlating it to Christ. (This Bible does, however, mention the "blood sacrifices for sin" in the temple in its New Testament section.)
  • Fails to include Bible references with section titles.

Overall, this is a great resource for helping children grasp the big picture of redemption that is found throughout the Bible. The pros definitely outweigh the cons. I highly recommend it!

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