Conditions
A read copy that remains in clean condition.
Conditions
A read copy that remains in clean condition.
The Bible is rich in stories that teach, fascinate, and encourage young people. The Children's Illustrated Bible retells these stories with clear simple language and colorful artwork on each page or spread. The young child will move from reading to discovery.
Originally published as a 10-volume paperback series which was published in English and translated in several languages, including Russian, the books have been brought together into one volume.
"Eve MacMaster remembers when her children were young she dug out the Biblical storybook she'd loved as a child and got quite a surprise.
"MacMaster is the pastor of Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Gainesville. Back in the 1970s she was a young mom with three children who'd already taken a few courses from seminary. But the old storybook presented an unexpected challenge.
"'It was fun to read, as I remembered, but I had all kinds of theological problems with it. It added things that weren't there, it didn't deal with the prophets, and it highlighted the war and violence, the sort of thrilling action stories in the first part of the Old Testament, and it was kind of a letdown to get to Jesus who just told stories, ' she says.
"So, she went to Mennonite publisher, Herald Press, and recommended that someone should do a 'really good Bible storybook.'
"'And they said, 'that's a good idea, why don't you do it'," she recalls.
"And that's exactly what she did. Over seven years, from 1980 to 1987, she put together The Story Bible Series a 10-part illustrated paperback series that offered hundreds of Bible stories that were sprinkled with black and white line drawings.
"Now, two decades later, major publisher Dalmatian Press, along with Herald Press, is putting out a single-volume, full-color, picture-filled Children's Illustrated Bible that's adapted those stories MacMaster first tested on her own children.
"'This book will get out to a mass market, and that's very exciting, '" she says. This description may be from another edition of this product.
Years ago when our children were the age of our grandchildren, DVDs, videos, even movies, weren't even remotely an option in our location far from city lights. We had had our own experience of Bible stories growing up, and some of those stories, and the illustrations, were so graphic as to be either offensive for their content (the attempted seduction of Joseph), or for the violence they protrayed, to be unfit for early primary children. At that point we discovered the early series of books which later become this book. The stories were faithful to the original, i.e., the Bible, and the illustrations were word pictures, rather than graphics, and were appropriate for small children. This book is tastefully illustrated (would it hold the interest of today's child without it?), and the word pictures continue in the text. The language is simple, but not childish, and will hold the interest of both the "read to" and the early self-reader child. As a grandfather of 4 and father of 4 it has my hearty recommendation for parents who want their children to be biblically literate without an interpretation, or moral lesson, from the multiple stories presented here, forced onto them. Parents from all faiths can add their own perspective on what the stories are teaching.
Simply wonderful and thoroughly 'kid friendly' illustrations by Jerry Dillingham and the entire 'Children's Illustrated Bible' team combine beautifully with Eve MacMaster's text which is adapted from 'The Story Bible Series' in the 498-page "Children's Illustrated Bible" from Herald Press. Beginning with the Genesis 1:1-2, 4 account of 'The Creation of the heavens and the Earth', to the conclusion of Revelation 21-21 and 'The City of God', the "Children's Illustrated Bible" chronologically and faithfully follows the Old and New Testaments narratives. With the biblical language retold in contemporary English for the benefit of young readers, and suitable for personal, family, school, and community libraries, the "Children's Illustrated Bible" is both confidently and enthusiastically recommended reading for children of all denominational backgrounds and affiliations.
