26. 8 Bible Stories for Early Readers (Adventure Bible) Illustrations by David Miles. 2025. Zondervan. 248 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars]
First sentence: God spent six days creating his world. That first day, God made light. He said, "Let there be light," and there it was. He made sure the light was separate from the dark. He called the light "day" and the dark he called "night."
This collection of early reader Bible stories (from The Adventure Bible, I believe) is a level 2 'I Can Read' reader. It features eight--presumably previously published and available as individual titles--stories.
The featured stories are:
God's Great Creation
Noah's Voyage
Moses Leads the People
Joseph the Dreamer
Ruth and Naomi
Brave Queen Esther
Miracles of Jesus
Paul Meets Jesus
What I like: Bible story books are good. It's good to have big, thick collections to read aloud with children of varying ages. It is good to have individual stories. (I grew up on the ARCH Bible story books.) There's a need for board books and early readers as well.
What I am meh about: The stories are extremely simplified. Presumably again 'for the audience' or because it is an early reader? But some times vital details that make the story make sense are left out. It almost feels like we're getting the George of the Jungle "they just get really big boo-boos" treatment. This may not annoy a young child. Probably wouldn't. For example, out of all the healing stories in the Bible, they chose the one with the woman who had bled for twelve years--and spent all she had on doctors. She sought Jesus out and touched him. They, of course, did not include any details of her story. Just a woman who touched Jesus and was healed. Is the story fine? Sure. It's fine. But there are other stories that could have been included perhaps that they wouldn't have felt the need to edit so much? Or did they include it just because she is a woman???? Who knows.
The stories selected felt slightly odd to me. Just slightly. It was like they felt the need to push Esther and Ruth just because they were women. Was that their intent? Maybe. Maybe not. I do *love, love, love* the book of Ruth. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE Ruth. But if you are just going to share eight stories--six from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament, then I am not sure they picked the absolute best six. (They could have picked four from the Old Testament and four from the New Testament and included stories about the cross or the resurrection.)
What I definitely did not like: I thought it was horrible oversight to put MOSES before Joseph. Such a thing just should not be. Will this bother anyone but me? Maybe. Surely I'm not alone in wanting the stories to actually come together as a big picture and make sense. But probably not.
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