Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury

Reason for Reading: We have religion as a subject every day M-TH, part of this included reading Bible stories. We read from this book every other week, the book came with our curriculum and I hadn't seen it before hand.

Comments: A retelling of the Bible through selected stories. No version of the Bible is given as a source, so one must assume it is a complete retelling. The book is from a non-denominational point of view and should be accessible to everyone, as it was to this Catholic reader. While containing a fair selection of Old Testament Stories the emphasis is on The New Testament. All the popular stories are contained and overall it is useful and edifying Bible. I will admit that at first glance I was unsure of it's use as it does appear simple. Each story is a two page spread with the left-hand side containing the text and the right hand side containing an illustration. The gave me the impression the stories would be dumbed down and missing their essence. I couldn't have been more wrong though. They are well-written at a high enough reading level (5/6) to contain a rich vocabulary and while the more adult situations have been left out the stories are true to the Bible, imho. Each one caused several minutes of teaching and discussion afterwards.

Also I can't end without saying that the book itself is highly pleasant to look at. With puffy boards, gilt edges, a ribbon bookmark, a presentation space on the front endpage and gorgeous original but old-fashioned looking paintings to illustrate this would make a perfect gift Bible. I'd recommend for ages 6+ to be read aloud or 8+ to be read alone until the child is ready for their own real Bible. ( )