Small children have big minds, when it comes to thinking about God, and The Big Bible Storybook will stimulate their ideas, their understanding, their imagination and their enthusiasm. With a greater span of stories than other similar books, The Big Bible Storybook starts with the beginning of the world in Genesis and takes you on a wonderful journey, through the Old and New Testaments, to the city of God in Revelation. The book is illustrated throughout with full-colour photographs of the popular Bible Friends characters, fabric models which have proved a bit hit with adults and children alike.
For more details: Big Bible Storybook
An idea suggested in one of the Tiddlywinks Big Books is to have one or two children’s Bibles which you can loan to children for a week at a time. This can be very popular and children see it as a privilege to be the one who takes the Bible home ‘this’ week. If you’ve got a large group, you’ll need several loan copies so that children don’t have to wait too long but part of the excitement comes with the anticipation and pleasure of it being ‘my turn’.
If you are telling the retold Bible story from a Tiddlywinks Big Book with your group, check whether it’s in your children’s Bible too and make a point of reading it from that Bible as well. Or if you’re using one of My Little Books, see if the same story is included in your child’s Bible. Children also enjoy seeing where the story occurs in an adult translation – looking through and finding the right place on the page can intrigue them and starts to help them become familiar with actively using a Bible, long before they are going to be able to read it for themselves.
Even the best children’s Bible for this age group can’t begin to be ‘complete’. There are many ranges of individual Bible story books which can supplement your Bible (children will enjoy a variety of versions of the same story) – and all styles of books –large and small, with flaps and pop-ups, board books, concertina books…
Visit your local Christian bookshop and see what’s available. Or search online, for example at: The Christian Bookshop
Other books you might like to consider are:
My Very First Bible, Lois Rock and Alex Ayliffe, Lion Hudson ISBN 978 0 74594 592 7 Carefully retold stories (20 from the Old and New Testaments) with a few well-chosen words on each beautifully-illustrated page.
Lion First Bible, Pat Alexander, Lion Hudson ISBN 978 0 74596 103 3 Recommended for 4 to 7s, this has detailed illustrations and crisp clear text. The choice of stories is limited, as always in this type of book, but the wording is accurate and helpful. With an adult to help, this Bible can be enjoyed by much younger children.
The Beginners’ Bible, Candle Books ISBN 978 1 85985 554 6 Fewer words to the page makes this less detailed but still gets the basics across. The artwork is bright and bold, though the style gets a bit ‘samey’ throughout the whole book.
Sometimes you may want to read some ‘real’ Bible words to children and then I would use the Contemporary English Version or the Good News Bible. I’d have one of those with me during a session, but I wouldn’t expect to be ‘leading’ from it directly, for most of the session.