Recently, I received a copy of a new bible story book for children. I love taking a look a those types of story books, particularly ones that take a different approach to traditional ones. However, this one, in my opinion, just didn’t sit well with me.
What I Didn’t Like:
In the beginning of the book, I was surprised to see that the word ‘snake’ had an uppercase “S”. That was too close to making the evil one equal to God in my opinion. Unfortunately, the book didn’t get any better. I didn’t like some of the wording used. Maybe it was used to be more relevant? I’m not sure. Some examples that stood out include:
- “Noah was ‘just as foul’ as everybody else.”
- “Abraham was ‘a bit of a scaredy-cat’.”
- “God is God, so he gets to pick.”
The images were also a bit scary, so it’s definitely designed for older children. One of the most disturbing things (and one that I showed my husband to make sure that I wasn’t seeing things) was a depiction of a skull and crossbones. I’m not sure where that fit in to anything mentioned in the book.
I was also disappointed that there was not one reference to scripture anywhere in the book, which was a bit odd and puzzling. It made no reference that these events took place in the bible. It read more like fiction than a bible storybook, which was also disappointing.
My Recommendation:
This book had so much wrong with it that I cannot recommend it.
Have you seen this book? If so, what are your thoughts?