Family-Time Bible: For Families

AGE: 3-8 FORMAT: 128 short Bible stories told on 1-4 (usually 2) pages each with gorgeous illustrations and 1-3 questions or a summary at the end of each story. Meant to be read aloud as a family. FAITHFULNESS: This book is almost entirely faithful to the Bible in the OT, with almost no non-explicit material included. Good for every denomination. NT materials include interpretations seen as orthodox by all major sects that I know of. ILLUSTRATIONS: The illustrations are beautiful and add much to the stories. USEFULNESS: This is extremely useful stories and devotionals, both. The briefness of the stories and their accuracy make them very easy to incorporate into a short daily devlotional even for the very young.

This is an excellent Bible to read to young children. We have collected many bibles and bible stories for our children (6, 4, and 3 year olds) over the last 5 years, looking for the perfect one. This seems to be the right fit for many reasons. This bible is very comprehensive. There are 128 short chapters, many of the stories covered are not found in most other bibles. There are a total of 74 chapters on the Old Testament. The first 22 chapters are on Genesis. Stories of Balaam's Donkey (from Numbers 22-24), Samson (from Judges 13-16), Ruth, 3 chapters covering Elijah (from 1 & 2 Kings), and how the temple was rebuilt (from Nehemiah) are samples of what is included. After reading all of these chapters, our children have a good foundation of the various books in the bible. These stories are also very accurate biblically. I am pretty sure that this is the same author who wrote the New Living Translation. He started writing children's bible stories and this bible before writing the NLT. The chapters are also concise, ranging from 1-3 pages per story. The Illustrations are eye-catching. Again, after looking and reading various bibles over the past 5 years, this is our favorite. I highly recommend it. If we had come across this one earlier we would have stopped looking for the perfect bible a long time ago, and would not have so many unused ones sitting on our bookshelf.

At age 4, our church gives children their first gift Bible as a first milestone. This Bible was given to my daughter last year and it is absolutely fabulous. The stories are written for readers between 4 - 8 years old. At the end of each story, there are a couple questions to ask your child. There is also a Biblical reference so you may look up the coordinating Bible scripture in your Bible, which we do together sometimes. The illustrations are also wonderful. Most stories are a page long which keeps it short and to-the-point to hold interest. If you are looking for a Bible for a child in this age group, I would highly recommend Family Time Bible!