Children's Illustrated Bible

Wonderful illustrations and background, disappointing text - Caroline in Sussex

We were recommended to get this bible when our middle son was about 7, that in-between age, when they've outgrown the little children's bibles, but aren't quite old enough to go straight to reading the full bible (an area that we feel is a gap in the market). We are currently reading it every morning as a family, and it is engaging all three of our children (now aged between 6 and 12), which is great. It has wonderful illustrations and lots of brilliant background information in typical Dorling Kindersley style - so you learn about what houses were like, and what people ate and it has great maps etc etc. My only criticism of it, and the thing that makes me hesitant to recommend it, is that there are a few times where the wording chosen by the author does not accurately reflect the bible, which is pretty important! For example, in the story of the Wise Men visiting the baby Jesus, it starts with the words 'News of the birth of Jesus spread far and wide. A group of wise men travelled from the east to Jerusalem'. In the bible, there is nothing about news spreading far and wide, in fact King Herod who lived on the doorstep knew nothing of it until the wise men arrived! They were simply astronomers who saw a special star in the east and believed this was a sign that a new king had been born, so they followed it. This may seem a small inaccuracy, but there a few of these and other times where the wording is misleading (eg a description of Jesus 'treating the sick', which gives the impression of someone nursing sick people rather than healing them), or where the author doesn't choose to include what many would think was the key verse of a passage or story. It seems such a shame that they have gone to all the trouble of producing this beautiful book, but haven't taken the trouble to make sure that all the stories are really accurately told. In every other way, I would give it 5 stars, but because I feel accuracy is really important, I can only give it 3.