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What are Bible story books? They are simplifications of real Biblical accounts made for children to introduce them to the narrative of the real Bible without exposing them to concepts too complicated for them or to incidents that are beyond their current ability to mentally process. A parent could read the Bible aloud to their child and adapt and simplify as they read but that is a difficult task to do for most parents. It is far easier to use a Bible story book in which someone has already done the work of adaptation and simplification. It is not easy to produce a good Bible story book. The author must present Biblical truth accurately, using simple language, while also leaving out some details that a child would not understand. I have seen some not-so-good Bible story books that fail at these tasks.
The best Bible story books serve the purpose of inducing a child to love the Bible and love God and interesting the child to read the full Bible for themselves. Being able to reading the Bible for themselves will help them to get to know the Lord Jesus Christ. The best Bible story books can also help to give a framework for the flow of Bible history, with knowledge of characters and historical incidents and concepts, from which a child can better understand and add in more truth, not just from the Bible, to this initial framework. A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories by Arthur W. Gross is one of the good ones. The title was obviously taken from Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous collection of childhood poems, A Child’s Garden of Verses, which is a nice touch. There are lovely pen and ink and color illustrations for each story. The text simply but effectively covers the highlights of the Old Testament and the New Testament, with language suitable for an elementary school student to read or for a younger child to be read to by his or her parent.