Several of you have asked on the ABC Jesus Loves Me Facebook Group for a good transition between Children’s Bibles and adult Bibles. How do you move from stories to actual verses?
Zondervan has several great options with their top selling Adventure Bible. Their latest release is the fully colored Adventure Bible for Early Readers using the New International Reader’s Version. NIrV is written in at a third-grade reading level. This level makes is perfect for read alouds for ages 5-7 and for young readers to read on their own. And, the wording is easily read and understood. The NirV version shortens sentences and sections yet without losing context. Chapters are separated into shorter sections and titles are given to help the child gain the main point. Names of people and places are coherent throughout.
The Adventure Bible includes some need features.
- Words to Treasure – highlights key verses to help with memorization
- Did you Know? – points out interesting facts found in the Bible
- People in the Bible Times – helps make the people in the Bible real and relevant
- Life in Bible Times – explain what it was like living in the Bible Times
- Live It! – shows you specific ways you can live out the Bible right now
- Book Introduction – Each book begins with an Introduction page to explain who wrote the book, when it was written, and a list of favorite Bible stories you will find in the book.
- The back of the Bible includes a Subject Index, Dictionary, and maps.
All of these features help make the transition from a Children’s Bible to a Scripture Bible as seamless as possible. When introducing your child to a Scripture Bible like the Adventures Bible, I encourage you to lay side-by-side both Bibles and demonstrate how the same stories are in both books. Explain how the chapters and verses are there to help us find the specific verses and stories that we desire.
If your child is too young for a Scripture Bible, over a weeks time read the same story in several different Children’s Bibles and then on the last day read from the Scriptures in a version that they can understand (NIrV, The Message, or Living Bible.) Click to read our favorite Children’s Bible. This introduce the child to Bible after he knows the basis of the story.
And most importantly…just because the child is old enough to read the Bible himself doesn’t mean that we stop reading to him.
Thank you to Zondervon for allowing me to review and share my honest thoughts on this Bible.
