Customer Reviews

Early Readers Bible

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As an early childhood program director for a large church and the parent of children who were reluctant readers, I was truly impressed with this outstaning children's bible. It proved to be a favorite devotional bible in our household from age 4 through age 9.

V. Gilbert Beers is an expert in christian education and understands children's developmental needs. When it first came out, this bible nicely filled the gap between publications for early childhood and the primary grades. Beers has created a text that builds word upon word, skill upon skill, just as a good school reading series does. The biblical text is accurate and engaging and is accompanied by wonderful colorful illustrations that enhance the stories with visual cues that aid reading comprehension. I also found this bible is a good choice for older children with reading delays. The pages are laid out with children's visual skills in mind and are easily "taken in" by children with visual/perceptual difficulties. Each chapter ends with an interactive section of things to think about and try. Children can act on what they've read immediately, and that's what children like! I've known 4 years olds who can begin to read words from this text on their own, and six year olds that can master it and read it to their friends. I have recommended this book to dozens of parents and Sunday school leaders looking for an appropriate bible for chidren ages 4 through 8.

Don't bother with the "knock offs" you'll find with similar titles; they don't hold a candle to this original and best of it's kind. There are, however, two other worthwhile and engaging bibles I've found that pay close attention to fun use of language or reading skills: The Rhyme Bible, and the Growing Reader's Phonics Bible. But, the Early Readers Bible remains my all around favorite for this developmental group. A great choice for cozy bedtime reading aloud to your two through 9 year olds, too.

I exchanged The Eager Reader's Bible by Daniel J. Hochstatter and Daryl J. Lucas for this book, and am glad I did.

The illustrations are far more serious and respectful of the text than are those in Eager Reader, and the authors have created a short series of questions to follow each story, such as "Why should you try to please God in all that you do?" or "How do you know when something is bad?" The questions allow a parent or a Sunday School teacher to help young children reflect upon and absorb the Bible story he's just read or heard.

When I asked my 6 year old why we try to please God he answered with a question, saying, "Because God is our boss?" Although that would be a good answer for some (I'm not suggesting it's wrong) in my faith we lean toward the notion that we aim to please God because He is the ultimate source of wisdom and goodness. God knows what is right and what is wrong, and we try to please him in order to do right.

My son and I were able to talk about this only because the questions were there. I wouldn't have thought of them on my own, and I think the questions are both profound and developmentally on-target. The authors have insights into children's understanding of God that probably few of us parents do.

It is also the best choice for a new reader. My son is a just-turned-six year old who learned to read about 6 months ago. The book is designed along the lines of an "I Can Read" book. Each story has a short list of new words on the first page, and at the back of the book the authors provide a "Basic Words List" and a "New Words List." The back cover says that the text features "250 basic words used in public school early reader books" as well as "200 new words including Bible vocabulary, with fewer than five new words introduced in each story." My son can read this Bible on his own whereas the Eager Reader Bible would have been too hard.

This is a wonderful book.

Initially we started reading this to my toddler because he loved his Noah's Ark board books, and I wanted to read him a more in-depth story. Then, we've expanded to all the stories of the Bible. He now finishes the sentances for me! This is the book I will give all my son's playgroup frineds, as it is colorful and simple, yet interesting for them. As my son grows, it will be a simple move to step him up to a complete Bible. Even at 2 years of age, we have been able to talk about things in our Christian walk thanks to the discussion started with one of these stories.

Mixed review: my son loves it and had it pretty much memorized by age 3. He can flip through and find a specific story about Elijah, David, or Jesus like nobody's business, which is great. It has nice short chunks with a single theme, and "new" words are featured on top of the first page of each story. However, I really dislike it. I think they did a very poor editing job. It comes off quite preachy and often completely misses the point of the original Scripture. (No, the moral of every Bible story is NOT that you'd better share and obey your parents.) It has clumbsy English that makes comprehension difficult and takes extraordinary pains to avoid "religious" words like "prayer." Also, it seems to emphasize violence and God smiting people more than called for. In many places it tries to "fill in" the story by adding in extra-Biblical details which at times I considered unjustifiably wrong. I ended up basically re-editing parts of maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the stories before I'd read them to my child. Editors of childrens Bibles have a hard task, but they need to take that task more seriously on a religious (vs marketing) level than seems to have been done here.

This Bible is perfect to have your child read aloud to you before they go to bed. It uses standard public school word lists so it reinforces the words they learn to read in school! I especially love that there are questions after the story and an application. Great for teaching your child how to do their own devotion time! As a first grade teacher I highly recommend parents to pick this up around January or February of their child's first grade year.

I bought this for my daughter who can manage lots of small words. This book is constructed so that it gives the child confidence in reading without lots of help. Each chapter introduces a new set of vocabulary words. The part that I really like is the review pages at the end of each chapter that test the comprehension of what has been read and that invite the child to consider how the story applies to his life. These have lead to some pretty great discussions with my daughter that I doubt I would have had otherwise. My only complaint is that the stories lack so much detail that my daughter often says "But what happened in between?" and "It says that God punished them, but how?" Even with that, though, this book is still a winner!

I know this Bible story book oversimplifies the stories, but for children just learning to read, it is wonderful. Three of my home schooled children used this as their main reader. I highly recommend it for this particular purpose.

I have purchased several of these books. I gave 1 to a young mother who reads it to her 5-year-old every night, and I gave 1 to a 7-year-old who loves reading it by herself. I teach English As A Second Language, and I used it while teaching a Chinese couple. They could read it, and they loved it! It gets to the heart of the story, asks thoughtful questions, and has been a learning experience for me too! I thoroughly recommend it!

I ordered these Early Reader's Bibles to give to children in our early elementary Vacation Bible School class this summer. I was very impressed with the text of each story, which is accessible for early readers. The discussion questions and activity for each story make this an excellent Sunday School resource too.

My major disappointment was the artwork. All of the Biblical characters and children pictured are white! We have a multicultural congregation and we work very hard to find curriculum that reflects the ethnic diversity of the Biblical world long ago and our world today.

My son is almost 7 years old and I bought this Bible thinking it would be "age appropriate." The sad part is that it does NOT have book name titles above the pages nor does it have verses. It's more like a Bible for new readers. I read other reviews and thought this would work out but I was wrong. I guess I'll save it for my 3 year old. Be advised.