The Beginner's Bible | A Review


The Beginner's Bible by Zonderkidz has been a favorite children's Bible in our home since our first year of homeschooling. My kids have loved this Bible and completely wore out our first copy. They carried it around and "read" the Bible stories before they could even read, and now my youngest, Boaz, will have a chance to read Bible stories with his own copy of The Beginner's Bible.



The Beginner's Bible, with full-color illustrations and all-new 3D artwork, contains 94 Bible stories from Scripture with simple, easy to understand text. The illustrations are on every page and are bright, colorful, and appealing to children. The stories are familiar, well-known stories from the Bible.


At 512 pages long, it includes a table of contents as well as a dictionary at the end of the book. The stories follow the chronology of the Bible and are divided up into Old Testament and New Testament. Each story includes a title in bold print with the Scripture reference printed below the title. The stories are mostly short stories, ranging in size from 3-6 pages in length, in large print, and easy to read. I read the first 91 pages to Bo in one sitting, and he wanted me to keep reading!

It is a hardback book with a high gloss cover, sturdy, glossy pages, and a flexible spine. It seems very sturdy, but I did mention that my kids wore our first one out. Our first copy actually came with the first boxed curriculum we ever bought, but was so well loved that at one point, it was falling apart. In fact, I remember that I had to have another copy knowing how beloved the book was to my children, and didn't hesitate to buy another to replace the one that was falling apart.

Designed for ages 4-8, The Beginner's Bible is meant to be read aloud. The first page of the book says "My name is ______. Will you please read to me? Thank you."

While we do read it aloud in our homeschool, it is also a part of our early reader collection. Because it is at a 2nd grade reading level, we first used The Beginner's Bible as a part of our 2nd grade Language Arts curriculum which involved reading the story, comprehension questions, and copy-work and/or dictation directly from the book. It gave my children a sense of accomplishment to be writing from and reading Bible stories on their own.


My youngest just turned 6 years old, so he is not quite ready to read this on his own yet, but he likes to "read" it himself by looking at the pictures. The colorful illustrations are hard to resist - eye candy for little ones, for sure. It will definitely continue to be a part of our reading time together, too.

Would I recommend it? 

Well, considering I've purchased this book more than once on my own, yes! I recommend it for a friendly, easy to read first story Bible for young children. I personally am not against reading to my children from a story Bible - at least until they are able to read the Bible on their own. I like that my children are more familiar with Bible stories at the age of 7 than I was out of high-school, and I don't mind that they learned the stories from a story Bible, rather than from Scripture itself - as long as I am there to talk about it with them! It's a great way to introduce young children to the people and stories of the Bible in a way that is appealing and understanding to them.

Have you already included The Beginner's Bible as a part of your Bible story time or early reader collection? If not, check it out, or visit my Crew mates to read their reviews.

Crew Disclaimer
Connect with Zonderkidz on Facebook Twitter YouTube Pinterest Instagram

5 comments

  1. We also love this Bible! Our copy is a few years old, and the cover is almost ripped off, but it is one of my favorite story Bibles.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Megan, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has had a book fall apart. I think the cover was the first to go on ours too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. We have still have this Bible, and ours is all beat up too. It was a favorite around here as well :) These pictures of Bo are precious. I love his smile!

    ReplyDelete
  4. This was the first children's bible given to us while I was pregnant with our oldest and before I had really even come to accept our Savior into my life.
    We ended up reading this countless times and I am pretty sure we have much of it memorized. The end result is a beautifully well used copy that has been taped, glued and taped again.
    Each of our boys have loved passing it on to the next child when they are finished with it but our oldest is sure to point out that the inscription in the front cover to "Baby Clark" was intended for him and he wants the book back when everyone is done with it. ;)
    I am so glad to see we arent the only ones that have enjoyed it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We have been actually using this Bible this school year. We've had it for years and it continues to be one that we will keep on the shelf.

    ReplyDelete