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078 | My Favorite Children's Books & Bibles
262 Plays3 years ago
Who doesn't love a book recommendation? A new monthly episode of book recs is coming to Verity and we're starting with children's faith based books and bibles! Phy shares her top seven books for discipling her own kids, ages 2, 5, and 7.
--Books--
The Spirit of God Illustrated Bible
Seek and Find: Old Testament Bible Stories
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Verity Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Verity. I'm your host, Felicia Masonheimer, an author, speaker, and Bible teacher. This podcast will help you embrace the history and depth of the Christian faith, ask questions, seek answers, and devote yourself to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. You don't have to settle for watered-down Christian teaching. And if you're ready to go deeper, God is just as ready to take you there. This is Verity, where every woman is a theologian.
Bringing Book Recommendations to Podcast
00:00:30
Speaker
Hi friends and welcome back to Verity Podcast. So today's episode is a little different than usual. I know that so many of you have enjoyed my book recommendations and the reviews that I have posted on the blog.
00:00:46
Speaker
Full disclosure, I have not been writing a ton on the blog lately, hoping to get back to that. But in the meantime, I thought, why not bring my book recommendations and reviews to the podcast? So I'm thinking once a month or every six weeks,
00:01:03
Speaker
I will do a book recommendation episode, and that's what this one is all about.
Children's Books on Faith: Gifts and Church Use
00:01:11
Speaker
Now, in this episode, I'm talking about books for children, books about God, scripture, the Bible, and children's Bibles, but I realize that not everyone listening has children.
00:01:26
Speaker
If you do listen to this, here are some ways this may be helpful to you. If you have friends who are having kids, these would make great gifts for a baby shower.
00:01:38
Speaker
If you are involved at your church and want to donate a book to their nursery or recommend these books or this podcast episode, that would be another way that you could use it. Or if you're just planning ahead and just want to know what these are or how to even share them with
00:01:58
Speaker
foster or adoptive families that would like to use these resources or are able to use these resources, all of those would be ways to use the information in this podcast episode. So I only have a few. I made myself only pick seven books and Bibles, but you know that I could easily talk for hours about all of the different children's books and Bibles that I love. I have restrained myself. So we will talk about seven.
00:02:28
Speaker
that I've picked. We're going to start with the most famous one. I'm just going to jump right
Review: Jesus Storybook Bible
00:02:34
Speaker
in. Many of you already know about this Bible because it has sold, I think, over 2 million copies, probably more than that by now. And this
00:02:44
Speaker
is the Jesus Storybook Bible. It is written by Sally Lloyd Jones and illustrated by Jago. And this is kind of the quintessential classic storybook Bible for children. And we have done this Bible three times. So our oldest is seven. And this Bible has been read by us three times. But what I really love about it is you can actually pick and choose chapters based on
00:03:13
Speaker
what you're studying or what you want to focus on. So for instance, you can read certain chapters during the Advent season to focus your kids on the coming Messiah. Or in one of the products that I'm currently working on is a mini curriculum on the Bible and bibliology for parents to go through with their kids.
00:03:38
Speaker
and I have used some reading selections from the Jesus Storybook Bible for that curriculum. So you can pick and choose chapters in here to read, but I also love reading through the whole thing because when you get that whole big overarching story, it's just so beautiful. I have cried multiple times reading this book to my children and we have really enjoyed it.
00:04:04
Speaker
I do want to make one note, I have seen some articles going around about Sally Lloyd-Jones and maybe some changes to her theology since the writing of this Bible, things that are more in the world of progressive Christianity.
00:04:19
Speaker
I have not researched that extensively in her current opinions on theology, but I can tell you that having read through this Bible three times, there is nothing unbiblical or unorthodox in this Bible. I have not seen anything concerning. I do not see any progressive leanings in this particular Bible.
00:04:42
Speaker
But again, I recommend using more than one children's Bible, just like I recommend reading from more than one Bible translation. And if you want to know more about Bible translations, you can go all the way back to the second season of the podcast in the Canon series where I talk about English translations.
00:05:01
Speaker
So the first Bible is the Jesus Storybook Bible.
Review: Spirit of God Illustrated Bible
00:05:05
Speaker
Fantastic. The second one is the Spirit of God Illustrated Bible. And I was sent this probably three or four years ago. I had never heard of it before.
00:05:17
Speaker
It's written by Doris Windbeek Rickers and illustrated by Fernando Juarez and I really enjoy this Bible. I think this is a fantastic resource for kids that don't really understand the Holy Spirit and I think that's a lot of Christian kids. If you're like me, I grew up not really not
00:05:37
Speaker
understanding what the Holy Spirit did or who he was. And this Bible highlights all of the passages in scripture where the Holy Spirit is found. And it takes you from Genesis all the way to Revelation. So it's kind of like a lighter, shorter Jesus storybook Bible focused on the Holy Spirit. The illustrations are really beautiful. And my girls loved this Bible. They begged for it every single meal. So this was a hit.
00:06:06
Speaker
almost more than the Jesus storybook Bible was, and it doesn't take long to read the chapters. So the second is the Spirit of God Illustrated Bible.
Review: The Biggest Story
00:06:16
Speaker
The third Bible, and I am calling this a Bible, even though it's more like a 10-chapter book, is the biggest story by Kevin DeYoung. It's illustrated by Don Clark. So the thing about this particular book is it's, again, only 10 chapters, but it does take you through the whole gospel story from Genesis to Revelation. So I'm counting it as a Bible. And I only have the original book, but they have since come out with a complete Bible.
00:06:46
Speaker
the biggest storybook Bible. So I have not reviewed that one yet, but it looks amazing. And this particular book is, it's very colorful. It's very simple. It's approachable language for a wide range of kids' ages. I would say Jesus' storybook is accessible to your three to 10-year-olds. Spirit of God, same thing. The biggest story though, I think the way it's written
00:07:13
Speaker
It's probably more like five to twelve almost, but my four-year-old still enjoyed it. The only thing I would say about the biggest story, and this is preference, the illustrations, first of all, the illustrator is very talented, amazingly talented. However, some of his illustrations kind of scared my kids.
00:07:35
Speaker
which seems kind of strange, but they're just very bright. They're very vivid. They're creative and artistic. And so some of the parts of the illustrations that are talking about sin or talking about the enemy are a little bit scary to my kids.
00:07:53
Speaker
And there is a movie version of this. It's 20 minutes long and you can watch it on right now media, which most churches can offer for free. And so I would say, again, I loved the movie. The girls watched it, but there is a little, the illustrations are brought to life. So if they scare your kids in the book,
00:08:10
Speaker
probably going to be even more scary in the movie. So that's the biggest story. That's the third Bible that we've used. I want to pause here and say we have now read through Jesus' storybook three times, Spirit of God once and the biggest story once. And what is so cool about this is we have layered all of what we've taught the girls about scripture.
00:08:31
Speaker
in the story of creation and the story of the gospel so that they really haven't memorized but they've heard it from all these different angles and all these different expressions and it's just so cool to see what they're retaining.
00:08:47
Speaker
after
Verity Conference Announcement
00:08:48
Speaker
a three year hiatus, Verity Conference is back and it's coming to Petoskey, Michigan, November 4th and 5th. I am so thrilled to bring back Verity Conference after our short break of a few years for COVID. And this time we are much bigger with two amazing speakers joining me to talk about apologetics and evangelism. How do we share our faith effectively in today's culture
00:09:15
Speaker
in a way that is both gracious and truthful. You'll hear from me, Jeremy Jenkins of All Things All People, and Priscellis Dominguez, who is going to share with us how to love other people while also speaking the truth. Jeremy specializes in world religions and cults, and he will be talking about evangelism in that context. I am so excited for this event. I hope you can join us. You can grab the remaining early bird tickets on my website, feliciamasonheimer.com, if you click the conference tab.
00:09:46
Speaker
Okay, now moving on from Bibles, I want to highlight a few books that I really love for kids about scripture.
Review: Seek and Find Old Testament Stories
00:09:55
Speaker
The first one is Seek and Find Old Testament Bible Stories, and this is exactly what it sounds like. Seek and Find, so I'm opening these here as I'm talking to you.
00:10:07
Speaker
You have a little list of 10 or so things on the page, and it says, Genesis 1-2, God's amazing garden. And it'll say, one sleepy sloth, two happy people. And they have to find those things in this picture, kind of like a where's Waldo situation. But it has a little blurb about the passage in Scripture, and then they can do their seek and find. This would be great for really young kids.
00:10:32
Speaker
I think Ivan would really like this. He's almost two, but my girls who are five and seven also really enjoy it. So this again is a, this would be a great travel book to bring in the car or on a plane. This is written by Sarah Parker and illustrated by Andre Parker. The illustrations are super cute and it goes through some of the main stories in the Old Testament. I believe they also have a New Testament Bible stories version, but
00:11:00
Speaker
I only bought the Seek and Find Old Testament when I was at the Gospel Coalition Women's Conference.
Bible Infographics for Kids
00:11:06
Speaker
The next book I want to highlight is called Bible Infographics for Kids, and this was published by Harvest House Publishers, who published my first book, Stop Calling Me Beautiful, and they sent this to me, and I had never heard of it before they sent it. I'm so glad they did because my girls also love this. So here's what's cool about this one.
00:11:27
Speaker
Inside, it is literally just entire infographics, just like it says, about different biblical topics. So for instance, there is a pie chart talking about the Old Testament and New Testament books of the Bible, and it shows how much of the New Testament is Gospels, how much is letters in the Old Testament, how much of it is law, how much of it is history.
00:11:50
Speaker
This book would be ideal for older kids so I would say 10 and up based on maturity level. Teenagers could really benefit from this one if they're doing research for school or a project. Homeschoolers I think would love this book.
00:12:05
Speaker
So, and there will be pages like, how on earth did it all begin? What was the creation narrative like? Or how big was Noah's Ark? And it has, you know, just measurements like how big is a qubit? And what size was the Ark compared to a 747 jet plane? Things like that are all in this book. But what's really neat is in the middle,
00:12:30
Speaker
There is a center fold that comes out and it has a Bible board game that you can play. And I played it with my girls and they really liked it. Adeline, who's seven, she thought it was super fun. Basically, you roll a dice and you move anything you want. You can use a penny or a little
00:12:50
Speaker
little toy animal or something, you move your character along the road and you earn points based on what spot you land on, or you can lose points. So for instance, Eve is formed from Adam's rib and created in God's image, you gain a point. But if you land on the serpent spot, which says the serpent tempts Eve by lying that the fruit will make her like God,
00:13:15
Speaker
you lose three points. So it's just a fun little game that's in the middle of this Bible infographic book. So again, I would say that's for older kids, not so much for the younger ones.
Engaging with Bible: Read It, See It, Say It, Sing It
00:13:28
Speaker
Okay, the next book I want to recommend is from my friend, Hunter Beeless, who you may know from the Journey Women podcast. If you are not familiar with Journey Women, I highly recommend listening to Hunter. Everything she does in the podcast is fantastic, and she has amazing interviews.
00:13:46
Speaker
Here at Verity, I don't do interviews because I don't have the time to schedule with everybody and make that happen, but Hunter does it so well. She's an excellent interviewer and apparently she's an excellent children's book author because she has a children's book called Read It, See It, Say It, Sing It.
00:14:06
Speaker
about knowing and loving the Bible. I love this book because it is so upbeat and the rhythm of the poetry when you're reading it is so much fun for kids to listen to, but it also teaches them about the value of the word. The illustrations are gorgeous.
00:14:26
Speaker
And all throughout it, your kids will learn why the Bible matters and why we should care about it and how to ingest it and remember it. So that's read it, see it, say it, sing it. This would be a great gift for a new mom or for a nursery at a church.
Teaching Prayer: Laura Whiffler's Book
00:14:44
Speaker
And lastly, from another friend of mine in another amazing podcaster is Laura Whiffler's book, Any Time, Any Place, Any Prayer, a true story of how you can talk with God. And so Laura is the co-host of Risen Motherhood, another amazing podcast with those of you who are moms.
00:15:06
Speaker
She and her sister-in-law Emily Jensen host the podcast but this book is only by Laura and I love it because we're constantly talking to our girls about why we pray and how to pray and you know when we pray we don't always see a direct
00:15:22
Speaker
answer, right? Or something doesn't change and kids can really struggle with that. And so I love the way Laura wrote this and how the focus is on intimacy with God through prayer versus just getting what we want. It talks about how in the Bible, people didn't always want to talk to God or didn't know what to say, or they were just scared to talk with God, but God had given them the opportunity to do that. So this is anytime, anyplace, any prayer.
00:15:52
Speaker
Okay, those are the seven books and Bibles I wanted to share with you.
Supporting the Podcast and Blog Resources
00:15:58
Speaker
I am going to put these on the blog. It will all be in a blog post and the transcript of this episode will be there as well as soon as we have it.
00:16:08
Speaker
And you can use the links in that blog post to buy it. If you do, we get a small commission or kickback and we use that to pay for Verity podcasts and the fees that go with getting this edited and putting the podcasts out there because at this time we aren't sponsored.
00:16:26
Speaker
If you would like to buy these books through our link, we are so grateful. Or you can just grab them wherever you would like from Christian book or your local bookstore. I'm a huge fan of supporting your local bookstore. And so if you want to ask them to order these, they can probably do that for you. I will see you next week. And in a month or so, I hope to be back with some more book recommendations.
00:16:50
Speaker
Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Verity.
Connect with Felicia Online
00:16:53
Speaker
You can connect with fellow listeners by following me on Instagram at Felicia Masonheimer or on our Facebook page by the same name. Also visit FeliciaMasonheimer.com for links to each episode and the show notes.