While there are so many good books out there, you and I know that the best book is the Good Book. Today I want to highlight a couple of books that get young and old alike into the Bible.
I’ve already featured a post on The Jesus Storybook Bible. It may look like just another picture book, but it is much more than that, and I’ve heard more than a few times that the adult reader was moved to tears while reading it aloud to a youngster. We currently carry it in the bookstore, and also have a Spanish-English bilingual version as well.
The Action Bible is a graphic novel that captures the overall narrative of the Bible in chronological order. And lest you think it is just a “guy book,” the girls of Bibliopolis are often crowded around the book reading it together, and fighting to get in line to check it out.
Just yesterday I had a pretty involved discussion with the 1st-2nd grade girls about why Pilate would have given Jesus over to be crucified if he knew Jesus was innocent. They had logical and insightful questions, and we were able to make connections to how we choose to do wrong when we are so afraid of getting into trouble.
There were some funny moments too. A couple of memorable lines from our discussion:
- “Why was Pilate afraid of losing his job and getting into trouble? He could just lose his job and be a regular person.”
- “Pilate should have listened to Jesus. And to his wife!”
I always have these two books out on the ottoman in the middle of our reading area, and without fail, whether 1st graders or 8th graders, someone will pick one up and read from it during part of our time together.
Here’s an unstaged photo of 1st-2nd boys reading the books. 🙂
They’re great ways to get the kids and adults in your life interested in the Bible, and hooked into God’s story.
Do you have any interesting stories or experiences with reading or sharing The Jesus Storybook Bible or The Action Bible with someone?
Gracepoint Church Library 
Another use I found for the Jesus Storybook Bible and the Zondervan Beginner’s Bible is using them to share the Gospel with older family members who are not familiar with Christianity. The pictures help when I’m trying to share about Bible passages since reading the actual Bible in Chinese might be intimidating or hard to understand for them. The visuals help them follow along with the stories of Jesus or other character or parables of Jesus. It’s great since everyone understands pictures regardless of language or age 🙂
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I just posted this in the winter book challenge, but I just finished reading this to Jacob. 🙂 Yes.. he’s only 4 months, but I found that partly because I was reading it out loud I felt very convicted by many of the truths from these stories.. and found myself tearing up after many of the chapters. Good thing Jacob doesn’t understand what’s going on yet. I find that time to time I just need to go back to the simple truth that we are God’s beloved children and it clears up a lot of clutter in my own head, and thankful for this simple but moving book!
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This past Christmas, I gave this book to one of my high school friends who has two kids (i think 4 and 1). She is a non-Christian and has not showed interest in Christianity, but she emailed me saying her son loves the book and has been asking her to read it to him every night. 🙂
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