One Year Bible For Children

Though initially sceptical based on the old fashioned cover, this is now my favourite kids Bible. It represents stories accurately and deals with tricky stories well. The questions are very helpful to engage kids although I occasionally come up with my own. Most stories are a page in length, which works well. My year 3 students love it, and I’ve now bought copies for family and friends (and convinced other teachers to buy it too). So much better than any devotional I’ve tried, which are sometimes moralistic and behaviour focused rather that focused on knowing and loving God, his word and others.

We have used this daily devotional Bible for a few months now and have found it thought-provoking, faith-building and inspiring, adults and child alike. It is giving a good overview of the Bible to our 9 year old with whom we have enjoyed wrestling with the questions and ideas raised. He is developing a good grounding in what is in the Bible and what it means, alongside a grasp of the importance of studying and questioning what's there. January begins with Genesis, through to Revelation in December, with pairs of days focussing on the Psalms sprinkled through at regular intervals. \\r\\n\\r\\nI would be hesitant to put it in the 5 - 8 yr bracket as the questions and ideas for discussion need some maturity in order to gain the best from them. I would say this is really aimed at the 7 - 12 age range. It's definitely one to do as a family group. \\r\\n\\r\\nMy only criticism is that it assumes a very conservative evangelical viewpoint, which our family doesn't share. This means it is hot on the importance of the Bible, which is good, but does seem to view direct experience of the Holy Spirit as being limited to the first Pentecost in Acts 2. This skews one or two of the questions, but is easily dealt with. We found it provoked a good discussion around what different Christians believe and what is an essential core to orthodox faith.