Homeschool Crew Review: The Beginner's Bible

Zondervan has been publishing Bibles, Christian books, curriculum, and other resources for more then 80 years.  Zonderkidz, the children's division of Zondervan, has many amazing products that are made just for children.  Over the last several weeks,  we have been using the newly updated The Beginner's Bible from Zonderkidz. 
The Beginner's Bible was designed for children in the 4-8 year old age range.  Young children will enjoy looking at the illustrations and being read to by an adult, while beginning readers (around 6-8 years old) will be able to read on their own.  Since it's release in 1989, The Beginner's Bible has sold over 25 million copies and was named the 2006 Retailers Choice Award in Children's Nonfiction. It recently was updated with brand new 3 D artwork.   The Beginner's Bible is a hardcover 512 page book.  It contains 94 Bible adaptations from both the Old and New Testaments.  The Bible starts with the Creation story and ends with the Jesus' upcoming return.  Although it does not contain the complete Bible, you will find many familiar lessons such as: Noah's Ark, The Burning Bush, The Battle of Jericho, David and Goliath, Daniel and the Lions, An Angel Visits Mary, Jesus Calms the Storm, The Lost Sheep, The Last Supper, Jesus is Risen, and many, many more.  Each of the pages have an illustration and simple text for children to read or be read to. Each lesson  has the Bible reference that the story was taken from.  A dictionary is also included in the back of the book.

You can purchase The Beginner's Bible for $16.99.  Discounts are available for those purchasing 10 or more Bibles. A Deluxe Edition is also available for $24.99 and includes 2 audio CDs with narrations, music, and sound effects.
The Beginner's Bible website has printables to go along with the Bible such as coloring sheets, mazes, matching, writing, and search and find.  There is also 4 different online activities children can use on a desktop compute as well as information on The Beginner's Bible app.

My 5 year old daughter, Emmie has claimed The Beginner's Bible as her own but she does allow Lily (7) to look at it as well.  Every morning when I am reading aloud our Bible lesson, she is "reading" out of this Bible.  She cannot really read on her own, but she pretends she can.  I printed out some of the coloring sheets and activities for her to work on.  She also takes the Bible to her bed to read before going to sleep so I can read to her.   Lily is able to read The Beginner's Bible on her own as she is a very strong reader but some of the text may be too difficult for young readers to read on their own.

The text is long enough to tell the story, but short enough to keep the attention of a small child.  I like that they include the Bible references for children that are getting older to be able to look up the full passages from the Bible.  The illustrations that are included are in a cartoon like style and very bright and colorful making it appealing for the girls to look at. There are many more stories included in this Bible then other Bibles for the same age range making it a better buy for the money. 
The Beginner's Bible is a great choice for a first Bible for the young people in your life.
To see what my Crew Mates had to say, stop by the Crew Blog!