Review: It's All About Jesus Bible Storybook: 100 Bible Stories

It's All About Jesus Bible Storybook: 100 Bible Stories by B&H Editorial Staff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The differentiation into different themes (see page 4 and 5) is brilliant. I wish I had been taught this from young! The pointing forward to Christ segments is a very nice touch, as I'd imagine that children's story books are scant of these. The illustrations are beautiful and attractive. Its rather extensive (and lengthy) content would require a skilful storyteller to sustain the attention of younger children.

The main selling point of the book is probably the companion downloadable app (which most people would probably miss out). Basically what it does is that the book's illustrations will "pop out" on the phone screen when hovered over. It also provides a narration that is simpler than the printed text, which is a boon for younger audiences. It is a pity that unlike the animation I had expected to see upon hovering over the illustration, the popping out does not provide much added value. Another issue is that when the phone moves away from the page, and then back over the page, the narration starts from the beginning - it would be great if the app could recognise where it had been interrupted. Also, the app is rather slow.

The app is a brilliant idea and I hope that it will be fine-tuned in the subsequent revisions. It can only get better!

I received this book from the BH/Lifeway Publishing Group's Blogger Team Program for the purposes of providing an unbiased review. All views are my own.

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Review: I Will Follow Jesus Bible Storybook

I Will Follow Jesus Bible Storybook by Judah Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is targeted at parents of pre-school children. If you are picking up a book by Judah Smith, it is likely that you are a pentecostal (and would probably rate this book as 3 stars), but if you are a more reformed/traditional Christian, you would probably give it 2 stars. I would give it 2.5 stars but most review websites do not allow that, (from my rating you can probably guess that I am caught in the tension in between).

I roped in my girlfriend, a sunday school teacher of many years to help me with this review as she would have a better how primary school children think (as compared to the seminary student who sometimes thinks and communicates in excessively theological/scholarly-ness). A major pet peeve of hers was how the book sometimes printed the stories in portrait (across 2 pages) rather than landscape.

I wish that the illustrated pictures were a bit sharper when printed, but I guess it was intentional decision or style of the artist. The stories are very simple for young children to understand, and would possibly make for good bedtime reading or storytelling. This is a storybook, not a bible; many bible stories are joined with others before an application is drawn. Some characters/sections of the bible are omitted - exclusions include Issac, Jacob, most of the prophets (only Samuel, Elijah, Daniel, Jonah were discussed), most of the kings (other than David), the exile of Israel and Judah, to name a few. It was a pity that Christ's death was only a one page story and that the rich teachings from the NT Epistles of what the church is about and how we as Christians relate to each other.

Sometimes the Smiths will share a sniplet from their lives to introduce a bible story, which may prove useful as a hook, but perhaps it would have been better to provide a series of guidelines whereby parents could share their own stories with their children. The applications often titled "I will follow Jesus" and is but often stops short of a typological Christology reference. I recognise that it is a challenge to provide the applications of bible passages for young children without falling into the trap of issuing a moral or legalistic cannibalisation of the text.

Writing a children's storybook is indeed an extremely challenging endeavour, and the Smiths fought a good fight with their commendable labour of love. Hopefully, there would be a revised more lengthy version or a part 2 that would highlight many parts of the bible that were left out!

I received this book from the Harpercollins’ Booklook Bloggers Program in exchange for this review.

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