When my children were young, I had Bible for Toddlers by Juliet David and Helen Prole, a Chinese-English picture Bible, for them.
It is bilingual and nicely printed on bond paper. The text is short, 1-2 lines in each language, and the pictures are big and cartoonish. This bible covers many biographies and passages that one doesn’t usually find in an abridged toddler Bible. Sometimes a passage can end abruptly and for parents who know the full text, you may find that the author has not sufficiently presented the message. Nonetheless, toddlers don’t seem to have a problem with those passages. My sons had never questioned whether there was more to those passages.
When my sons began pre-school, the Bible we used was The Beginner’s Bible published by Zonderkidz. The main reason for choosing this Bible was the series of DVD produced in the same illustrative style. This was definitely not a very sound reason for choosing a children’s bible. A newer version of this product has read-along CDs.
As my boys began early elementary, their Christian school required a fulltext bible. For my eldest son who is an advanced reader, we chose a Bible with guiding questions in the margin. The Bible cover is masculine. We made it a big deal when we gave him the Bible: he was old enough to have his own Bible, one in full text just like his parents’! We also gave him devotional books to help him establish the habit of spending time with God every day.
My middle son reads below his grade. The NIV bible, while is the most popular English version, has many words that are too big for him. I found out about the NIrV (New International Readers Version) bible translated by the International Bible Society. The English used is simpler and the sentences are shorter; definitely a good choice for early readers. Here is a verse to illustrate the difference between NIV and NIrV:
NIV: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.." (2 Timothy 3:16, NIV)
NIrV: "God has breathed life into all of Scripture. It is useful for teaching us what is true. It is useful for correcting our mistakes. It is useful for making our lives whole again. It is useful for training us to do what is right. " (2 Timothy 3:16, NIrV)
In the end, I did not choose an NIrV bible for my middle son, though NIrV’s reading level is more appropriate for him than the NIV. I wanted my son to follow the same wordings with the rest of his classmates when he recites his weekly bible verse, so I picked an NIV bible for him. Nonetheless, I chose Zonderkidz’, The Discoverer’s Bible, a large print (12-point) children version. The large font makes reading less intimidating. There are 30 full colour illustrations in the bible but the artwork was not very contemporary, in my opinion.
The NIrV would be a version that I reference to in explaining big words to bible readers of all age.
God has breathed life into all of Scripture. It is useful for teaching us what is true. It is useful for correcting our mistakes. It is useful for making our lives whole again. It is useful for training us to do what is right. (2 Timothy 3:16, NIrV)
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