One Year Bible for Children by V. Gilbert Beers

One Year Bible for Children by V. Gilbert Beers ISBN-13: 9780842373555 Hardcover: 420 pages Publisher: Tyndale House Released: 2001

Source: Bought from Christianbook.com.

Book Description from Goodreads:
This new devotional in The One Year line for families with children ages 5-8 combines beautiful four-color illustrations with skilled writing from best-selling author Gil Beers. Every day's reading features a three-part discussion section: "Remember" (to recall factual information); "Discover" (to learn a lesson that relates to today); and "Apply" (to apply to the child's own situation).


My Review:
One Year Bible for Children is an illustrated Bible for young children (ages 5-8). It's designed to be read to the child and perhaps later read by the child.

The daily readings are about 1 page long and each has a date (January 1, etc.) for when it's to be read. I'd suggest starting at "January 1st" even if that's not when you start reading the book. The selections follow the narrative portions of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation with excerpts from the Psalms and some of the New Testament letters. Not all of the narrative in the Bible is covered, but it does cover more than I've generally seen in children's Bibles and it comes across as an ongoing story rather than stories taken out of context.

The text is a simplified vocabulary version of the actual Bible. You couldn't use this to look up specific verses, but I'd feel comfortable using this as a "real Bible reading" for young children. The commentary is kept out of the main text except when used to explain an event that might confuse children.

At the bottom of each reading, there are questions to see if the child has been paying attention and comments about what we learn from the passage. I like that these comments usually pointed out what we learned about God rather than using the story solely as a moral lesson. Also included is a prompt to think of ways to apply what we learned from the reading.

The full-color illustrations look like the cover and accurately portray the time period (except for the scarcity of brown- or black-skinned people). There is an illustration every two or three pages. Not every daily reading has a picture, but there are plenty of pictures.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this Bible as a read-to-them children's Bible.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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