A Book Review from Books At a Glance
by Kristin Stiles
It used to be that everybody knew the stories of Noah and the Ark, David and Goliath, and Daniel and the Lions’ Den. It didn’t matter if you grew up going to church or not, those stories were just a part of American culture that even children from non-Christian families were familiar with. That is no longer the case. Biblical literacy is at an all-time low. This results in fewer allusions to Bible stories in the secular world and a greater disconnect from these sacred writings. Now more than ever, Christian parents need to be intentional about teaching their children what’s in the Bible. And they need to start young. Carine MacKenzie’s book, Little Hands Story Bible, is a great resource for doing just that.
MacKenzie presents 33 Old Testament stories and 36 New Testament stories in a simple, kid-friendly way for children ages 3-6. Each story is reduced to its most basic components (we’re talking approximately 6 sentences per story) but without losing the main point. After this brief summary, she provides the reference where it can be located in the Bible, a simple question to ask your young one, a “spot this” item for him/her to find in the adjoining picture, and a single principle to be learned from the story. These principles typically either reflect a truth about God or encourage the child to emulate the Bible character in a specific way that demonstrates obedience to God.
I appreciate how this book is designed. The stories from the Old Testament are on pages backed by red while the New Testament stories are backed by purple. The illustrations are colorful and engaging. I also like how the various components of each story are formatted. And I have to mention the adorable font used for each of the story titles.
One thing rather surprised me, though. The stories end with the epistles. There are no entries from the book of Revelation at all—nothing about the second coming of Christ or our hope of heaven. I’m not sure why those were left out, but I was a little disappointed by that.
Overall, this is really a delightful book that gives children a quick introduction to many of the important characters in scripture and exposes them to the overarching theme of salvation through Jesus Christ. I would recommend this as a bedtime devotional or even as a book that you read several pages to your child at one sitting. You can’t go wrong getting these stories into the minds of your children at a very young age.
Kristin Stiles is a home-school mom, a Sunday School teacher, and helps lead the “Young, Reading, & Reformed” children’s ministry at Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia, PA.