Choosing a Children’s Bible

So now you have your own Bible, and you have some ideas on how to study the Bible or where to go to study it, but your kids don’t have a Bible to use at home for family discipleship or take to Sunday School, let’s look for a Children’s Bible.

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What Children’s Bible should I choose for my kids?

Honestly, that’s going to depend on how old they are?  Again, we’ve got several different Bible storybooks for them and at different ages, I’ve read them to the kids.  I’m going to split this up into Toddler, Preschooler/Early Elementary, Reading on their own.****

TODDLER CHILDREN’S BIBLES

This is old enough to listen to a story, but not a great attention span, for each kid this will be a different age range

The Beginner’s Bible

This is a pretty comprehensive storybook.  The stories are short at most 5 pages or so, and the pictures are pretty and engaging.  One downside is everyone looks like a white European, so if you’re wanting a visually accurate book, this is not it.

My First Hands-On Bible

I did a more comprehensive review of this earlier.  This is a great Bible for toddlers, the stories are short, and each one includes several suggested actions or small games while you’re reading the story.  I got this when my boys were 5 and they loved the moving around.  For a more thorough review click on the link.

PRESCHOOL/EARLY ELEMENTARY CHILDREN’S BIBLES

I’m counting this as old enough to concentrate for a while, but not yet old enough to read on their own

The Jesus Storybook Bible

This is hands down my favorite storybook Bible.  Each story points back to Jesus and is told in light of the cross.  The pictures are not my favorite, but I like that they are vaguely middle-Eastern or could be interpreted that way.

The Message for Kids

When they created this Bible they took the words from the Message translation and extracted the important points to the story.  So, it’s close to a translation, but not quite one.  It flows well and has a cute little cricket to look for in each story.

My Father’s World 1st grade Bible Reader

I picked this up at Mardel one day, and Superman has loved reading from this to me.  It’s a somewhat limited selection of stories, but he loves reading them to me. Your best bet to find it is either at Mardel or an used book store.

Reading on my own Children’s Bibles, what I recommend

This is the kid who is ready to read the actual text of the Bible on their own AND has the maturity to read it that way.  Some kids may be able to read the text on their own but not have the maturity. I’m pulling out three of the major Children’s Bibles you can easily find that I recommend.

Adventure Bible, NIV

I believe this is available in NIRV, NIV, and NKJV.  This is the Bible my church has for Sunday School classes.  Sprinkled throughout the Bible are little boxes that have interesting facts or more information.  This is how half of my Sunday school class discovered Ehud, or as they called him “the Gross Judge”………….  Those little boxes are my favorite thing about this Bible.  TEXT IS NORMAL SIZED.

Hands-On Bible NLT

I think this is only available in NLT.  I won this in a giveaway a few years ago.  I look at this Bible from time to time for application ideas for my kids or Sunday School class.  Like the Adventure Bible, there are boxes throughout with extra information for the kids.  TEXT IS NORMAL SIZED

NIrV Discoverer’s Bible

My boys have this Bible, and Princess has the girly version with Princesses all over.  My favorite thing about this Bible, it has LARGE PRINT, so it’s easier for early readers to read.  The one we have is in NIRV, which isn’t my favorite, but I really wanted a large print Bible for their first Bible.  There are no fun random boxes in it, instead, it has full-page color illustrations inserted throughout the Bible. {Updated to add}: We have since bought our kids adult Bibles in ESV.

There are about a million “Children’s Bibles,” these are the ones I have experience with, we spent over half an hour trying to decide what type of Bible my kids could get.  The boys wanted a camo-Bible, but it had a little bitty print.  Princess wanted a pink jeweled Bible, but it also had itty bitty print, and I wanted them to have a better chance of success reading on their own.

What I recommend when picking a Children’s Bible

Everyone is going to be looking for something different. Here are what I looked for when picking my kids’ first Children’s Bible.

1. Is it a translation I am fine with them using. I personally don’t like the NIrV,  to make it more readable, they dumbed down some word choices, and in changing some word choices they actually made it more sexually explicit. I, personally, use an ESV translation, and since I first bought my kids’ children’s Bibles, they’ve come out with some cool ESV children’s Bibles, which is what I would buy now rather than the NIV Bibles I bought them.
2. Look at print size. I bought my children real Bibles as soon as they could feasibly read them, because of that I bought them Bibles with larger print. When I bought the boys new Bibles a couple of years later, I bought them a different version with smaller print (They had destroyed their first Bibles with use).
3. Will it grow with them? While your child may be super into Veggietales right now, will they still want to use a Veggietales Bible when they are in 5th grade?
4. Is it colorful? I remember my first Bible, and I spent a lot of time looking at and reading the colorful sidebars. That in turn got me reading the scripture referenced in those sidebars.
5. Are there maps? Maps are a great way to get kids looking at their Bibles and finding out more.

I also found this post recently, Choosing a Children’s Bible, which reviews several Bibles I am not familiar with.

Hop over to Simply Living for Him to learn about Using the Bible as your Main Text, OR check out This Reading Mama for Teaching Spelling Through Word Study.

**** Princess insisted I had to do PINK words on at least one of my pictures.

Learn more about Pouring God’s Word into your kids

• Day 1: Choosing your Bible
• Day 2: Finding the right Bible study for you
• Day 3: Choosing a children’s Bible
• Day 4: Choosing a children’s Bible study
• Day 5: What to do when you’re spiritually empty
• Day 6: Digging Deeper
• Day 7: Live it Out
• Day 8: Sing it Loud
• Day 9: Act it Out
• Day 10: A week in our Bible Study

Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash