What do you think?
Rate this book
365 Read-Aloud Bedtime Bible Stories
The Most Important 10 Minutes in Your Child's Day!
Make the most out of bedtime with 365 Read-Aloud Bedtime Bible Stories
Children love Bible stories, especially when they are written in age-appropiate, easy-to-understand language. Written specifically for ages 3-8, this book has a year's supply of the best-loved Bible stories that will delight your children. All the excitement, adventure, history and spiritual truths of the Bible are skillfully presented.
Features questions to help stimulate discussion and over 100 illustrations to spark the imagination!
Daniel Partner is a freelance writer and editor. He has worked on many Bible projects for both children and adults.
Make the most out of bedtime with 365 Read-Aloud Bedtime Bible Stories
Children love Bible stories, especially when they are written in age-appropiate, easy-to-understand language. Written specifically for ages 3-8, this book has a year's supply of the best-loved Bible stories that will delight your children. All the excitement, adventure, history and spiritual truths of the Bible are skillfully presented.
Features questions to help stimulate discussion and over 100 illustrations to spark the imagination!
Daniel Partner is a freelance writer and editor. He has worked on many Bible projects for both children and adults.
367 pages, Paperback
First published December 30, 1899
668 people are currently reading
384 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 2, 2012
I have been on the lookout for a good introductory book for adults to the stories in the Bible, and someone told me this children’s book would actually be a good one. They were right, I read through every story and enjoyed it! It’s a one-year collection of short Bible stories; you get 211 from the Old Testament, and 154 from the New (mostly Acts and the Gospels).
Do be aware that its target audience really is young children. You won’t find any of the Bible’s “adult themes” herein. Rahab isn’t a harlot; she’s just a nice lady. Mary isn’t a virgin. I guess that would be a little too complicated to explain.
365 days wasn’t quite enough for Partner to get through the Bible, probably because of an overemphasis on the teachings of Jesus, so you won’t find a full coverage of the Bible. For example, if there was anything at all about Ezekiel, one of the Bible’s more important prophets, I missed it. I was a little surprised at this, since Ezekiel’s dreams and publicity stunts would make for memorable children’s lessons.
You will, however, find a great deal of attention given to the kings of Israel and Judah, to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, to the deportation into captivity, to the release from captivity and rebuilding of the Holy Land. Excellent; I’m in favor of this emphasis. Few Christians grow up knowing anything at all about Judaism’s past, its defeats, sufferings, and desperate hopes for redemption. This is, after all, the atmosphere which birthed Christianity, for Christ means “Messiah,” the long-awaited redeemer.
Great book, cute pictures, and even I could understand the simple writing. :)
Do be aware that its target audience really is young children. You won’t find any of the Bible’s “adult themes” herein. Rahab isn’t a harlot; she’s just a nice lady. Mary isn’t a virgin. I guess that would be a little too complicated to explain.
365 days wasn’t quite enough for Partner to get through the Bible, probably because of an overemphasis on the teachings of Jesus, so you won’t find a full coverage of the Bible. For example, if there was anything at all about Ezekiel, one of the Bible’s more important prophets, I missed it. I was a little surprised at this, since Ezekiel’s dreams and publicity stunts would make for memorable children’s lessons.
You will, however, find a great deal of attention given to the kings of Israel and Judah, to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, to the deportation into captivity, to the release from captivity and rebuilding of the Holy Land. Excellent; I’m in favor of this emphasis. Few Christians grow up knowing anything at all about Judaism’s past, its defeats, sufferings, and desperate hopes for redemption. This is, after all, the atmosphere which birthed Christianity, for Christ means “Messiah,” the long-awaited redeemer.
Great book, cute pictures, and even I could understand the simple writing. :)
March 20, 2013
I'd allow myself to read a page a night to better myself and to know the history of the Bible. Since it's designed for a younger audience, I could understand the book.
January 3, 2017
A more accurate title would be: 365 Gruesome Bible Stories to Give Your Child Nightmares. A friend’s son received this as a gift from a well-meaning grandmother. Thankfully, we pre-screened it, because it was not in any way appropriate for a one-year-old. The flowery language of the Old Testament is simplified so children can understand, but that just makes horror more stark.
The following are direct quotes:
"God became angry and he sent poisonous snakes into the camp. They bit many people who then died." (pg 64)
"The battle had made him so tired that Sisera fell asleep. Then Jael drove a tent peg into Sisera’s head and killed him." (pg 80)
"Jehoram’s insides fell out. He died in agony. No one was sorry." (Pg 160)
This book is advertised as appropriate for ages three to eight, but I wouldn’t recommend reading it to any child under ten (never if the child is sensitive).
The following are direct quotes:
"God became angry and he sent poisonous snakes into the camp. They bit many people who then died." (pg 64)
"The battle had made him so tired that Sisera fell asleep. Then Jael drove a tent peg into Sisera’s head and killed him." (pg 80)
"Jehoram’s insides fell out. He died in agony. No one was sorry." (Pg 160)
This book is advertised as appropriate for ages three to eight, but I wouldn’t recommend reading it to any child under ten (never if the child is sensitive).
June 15, 2017
Sun May 7
I read this through at least once as a little kid. I remember reading it at night. It was nice to pull it out of my chest and reacquaint myself with it. With my recent religion revival I felt inspired to read it and learn the bible stories again.
The simple writing lends itself to children very well; it's so easy to read but has all the important details. I'm ashamed to say I didn't know the order in which God made the world, and on which days He did what. I really liked the line that said God made man to care for the earth, what with controversy debating on whether the planet is in danger and whether conservation is okay or not.
It's cool that there's a story for every day of the year. I don't remember if I read one story a night as a kid or if I read more, but I found at 24 that one wasn't enough and I wanted more to read. The stories are so short because they're not even a full page long so it didn't feel like enough to only read 1.
I was a little confused because the beginning said God made animals on the fifth day, and on the sixth He made man. But the story of Adam and Eve confused me. God made Adam and then He made animals and Adam got to name all of them. I thought God made animals first, because I was just told that. So how could He create Adam first and all those animals second if he created animals before He ever created man?
On the first day God made Day and Night. Second day He made the sky. Third day: Made dry land and plants grow. 4th day: sun, moon and stars. 5th day: God made animals. 6th day: God made man. 7th day: He rested.
In the Garden of Eden there was the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which was the bad tree.
Very interesting that since the serpent tricked Eve, God said he would always crawl on his belly and that humans would hate him and he would hate humans. They'd crush him and he would bite them. I didn't like when Eve was sentenced to have children but would be in pain. Seems like unfair punishment for women because of her sin...And guys would work for everything from the earth and sweat and suffer and return to dust.
Cain murdering his brother Abel was such an incomplete story. It gave no motive as to why. It should have stated why God wasn't pleased with Cain's gift of fruit and why he liked Abel's gift of a lamb. And it should have stated Cain was jealous of Abel because of God's favor or something. The line "Later, Cain killed Abel walking in the field" showed bad grammar. It was missing a word, like Cain killed Abel while walking in the field or while he was walking in the field. And what was the curse that God put on him? All it said was he lived outside Eden. Was that it?
It really hit home that God saw the wickedness of people and said He regretted making them, so He had all of them killed except Noah and his family because he was the only one living right. I can't believe people's lifespans were over 600 years old!
I had never heard that God made a promise to Noah once he built an altar for Him and gave Him gifts that He would never destroy the earth again and that a rainbow came into the sky as God's promise.
There were surprises and things I'm ashamed I didn't know. I didn't know Joseph of the colored coat having dreams of his brothers one day bowing down to him, and then eventually being sold as a slave in Egypt and Pharaoh making him ruler of the place and country because God told him the meaning of Pharaoh's dreams.
Typo pg 33 Joseph's son's went...
Asked questions we didn't know the answer to. Like day 45 terrible days of Egypt. Why wouldn't Pharaoh let God's people go? We don't know.
The Day 50 Food Rains from Heaven was really inspiring. The people of Israel were hungry as they traveled from Egypt and journeyed to their new land. God spoke to Moses and said he would rain food down but only to take what they needed. Leftovers would spoil. So white flakes rained down and they called it manna, which meant what is it? I thought that was so cool. And the ones left on the ground would melt in the sun and if kept overnight they would stink and have worms. It stopped falling 40 years later when they reached Canaan.
Typo pg. 52 "I'm going to rain down food from heaven for you, "he said.
It was interesting that God told Moses to have Israel build a special tent where they would meet with God, and this was called the tabernacle, or the tent of meeting. I've heard of tabernacle before and didn't know what it was.
I was confused because Aaron was the one that told the people to give him their gold earrings and he burned them down to liquid and formed the golden calf for everyone to worship. God wanted to destroy them all but Moses asked Him to reconsider. Moses asked who was with God and the tribe of Levi came forward and he had them kill all of the idol worshippers. Then a couple stories later Aaron and his sons were made priests that went into the tabernacle. Wasn't he an idol worshipper and so would have been killed? It was made even more confusing because it said he was of the tribe of Levi. What??
It was so interesting that one of the laws God gave Moses was that if someone accidently killed someone they could go to one of the six figures of refuge and escape being killed themselves. The law up to that point had been that if someone accidently killed someone, the dead person's family would kill them.
Some stories were terribly written. Things didn't add up, things would bounce around out of order from one story to the next. Questions would be asked that we didn't have the answers to. Too many times the question was about the previous story. And some questions are about what we thought instead of asking for a fact from the reading. I didn't have enough info to base my answer on and couldn't even really answer. The stories were just bare bones and didn't have a lot to offer. It was maddening.
On day 91 Ruth joins Naomi story, the author said Naomi knew God blessed Israel, then she had Naomi tell her son's wives that she hoped God would bless them and give them a new husband. But later she told Ruth that Orpah went back to her family and her gods. I was like what, she had just gotten through referencing God, and now she's mentioning polytheism? Shouldn't she have said Orpah went back to God? Because that would mean Orpah was a sinner and worshipped fake gods.
Typo pg 98 "He is a prophet who can be trusted," They said.
Pg 106 "Anoint him, This is the one."
115 Now these services where held in Jerusalem.
It was weird how David and Bathsheba's first son was killed to punish David for having her husband killed so he could get with her, then thus and another son named Solomon. Which is to say that was their oldest son, bcuz he was born next. But then the author went on to say their oldest son Absalom. Do you see how you're confusing readers with bad writing? He has to be concise bcuz it has to be a page, so there isn't a lot of time to share details, but this is beyond bad. Some things are plain contradictory and confuse the heck out of me.
The order of things was really messed up. For example, in one story King David ruled for so many years and then passed he throne to his son Solomon. The very next story said David ruled 33 years then died, was buried and Solomon sat on his throne. That's not how it was just told the page before. This makes it sound like David died first and then Solomon was the successor, when he just said David himself gave the throne over to him and obviously lived after Solomon was king.
Typo pg 135 How long did the widow have to food for Elijah?
138 O God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, show them that you are Israel's God. Turn their hearts back to you."
Typo pg 167 Why did God's anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem?
Pg 171 There Josiah found a grave. "What is that grave marker I see?" He asked.
Pg 200 How could Esther visit the Ahasuerus? (That's a person so it shouldn't say the)
202 Some people in your empire don't keep your laws."
203 What did Esther want Haman and the Jews to do for her? (This should say Mordecai and not Haman. Haman was the man wanting to kill all Jews. She wanted her cousin Mordecai and Jews to pray for her)
204 Haman, thought the king wanted to honor him.
Example of the bad writing. "Pray for me three days. I'll do the same. Then I'll go into the king."
Everything could have been written better. Pray for me for three days? Pray for her to have three days? What? She'll go into the king? Don't you mean she'll go to the king?
210 "What are these feeble Jews doing?" He mocked.
"I'm doing a great work," He replied.
Questions part only had 1 question.
211 listeneing
I couldn't wait for the appearance of people that I actually knew. It wasn't until page 212 that Elizabeth came into the story, the old woman that had the baby John. And the next page had the introduction of Mary! I had been waiting and waiting for when Jesus came into the book.
After the angel told the shepherds of Jesus' birth, I got chills as it said that the sky was full of angels praising God and saying "Glory to God in heaven. On earth, peace and good will."
I also got chills as I read the Rising Star of Christ story and the wise men said they saw his star rise in the sky.
It was new to me to learn that Mary and Joseph had to travel to Egypt to escape King Herod killing Jesus, and a prophet knew long before that this would happen and had wrote "Out of Egypt I've called my son." Also that angels warned Joseph of going back to Judea because Harod's son ruled there, so they went to Nazareth and that's why Jesus was considered a Nazarene. It's cool that long ago a prophet knew this would happen too and said He will be called a Nazarene.
221 They retuned to Nazareth..
It was so interesting to learn that Jesus knew when he was supposed to start performing miracles. He gathered Peter, who I didn't know was really named Simon and was John the Baptist's son, Andrew, James and John to follow him. There was a wedding and they ran out of wine and Mary knew Jesus could help so she told him and he said it wasn't time for him to do miracles. That was so cool. And really cool that he did it and had them fill jars with water and when they brought it to the leader it had turned to wine. It was the first time he had done something to prove he was the son of God.
It set right some things I didn't know. When Jesus went to the temple and saw that people were selling things there he drove them out for using his Father's house as a marketplace. People asked for a sign that showed he had the right to do this. He said that if they destroyed the temple he would build it up in 3 days. I didn't know that he didn't mean the temple. He meant his body, which is why after he was killed he rose in 3 days' time.
It gave me chills when I read "Well, I'm the Son of Man. I'll be lifted up on a cross. Whoever believes in me will be healed of sin and have eternal life. Because God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. Whoever believes in him won't die forever. They'll have eternal life."
The story of a man coming to Jesus and saying his son was possessed by an evil spirit and telling Him that he went to His disciples but they couldn't cure him was one I had never heard. And it was sad when Jesus said they have no faith and how much longer does He have to put up with them? It's sad He had that opinion of them.
The story about God searching for sinners, with the man that had two sons: one that stayed at home and worked for him, and another who took his own share and squandered it away, was really illuminating. The dad rejoiced at the younger son's return, celebrated and gave him his best things bcuz he had come back and turned away from sin. The older son was mad bcuz he had been the one to work there all that time and he never did anything bad. But the point was that God loves sinners and, like the one lamb that goes missing out of 99, will go looking for it and rejoice that it's back.
It was such a new concept that Jesus came to earth to seek out and save the lost. So He did things like choose a rich tax collector's house to stay in for the day.
Some stories could have used some more explanation. Like Hosanna in the highest. I had no idea what that meant.
It's so sad that Jesus prayed to God for Him not to make Him do this. Most accounts don't show this in the movies, and I like that this did. My mom told me that He cried tears and I had never heard that before or seen it in movies and I think it should have been said in here to show what He was really feeling and thinking. It's also sad that He said He was saddened and wanted them to stay awake with Him while He prayed and when He came back they were asleep.
I had never heard that soldiers played gambling games to see who won win Jesus's clothes as He was crucified. And I didn't realize that Pilate put the sign on His cross that Jesus was the king of the Jews, which seemed to be mocking him.
I think it should be included in movies that after Jesus was crucified, and the curtain ripped and rocks split, that the captain of the Roman guard said "Absolutely this man was God's Son."
It was such an oversight not to mention Mary Magdalene until after Jesus's death. Every story that included a woman around Jesus, I expected to be called Mary, the one who was a prostitute, but nope. Not a word of her, none of the women were even named, until, suddenly, she appeared out of nowhere once Jesus was coming back from death. Poor planning.
I didn't know that the Pharisees put guards outside His tomb to guard against the disciples taking Jesus's body, because they didn't really believe He would come back from death. And I didn't know an angel appeared and rolled the stone away from the tomb entrance.
I didn't know that Jesus told Mary Magdalene not to hold onto Him because He hadn't gone to His Father yet. Or that He told her to tell the disciples that He was going to His Father and their Father.
I didn't know the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and could heal people just like Jesus did. Or at Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus was crucified that once they were all filled with the Spirit they spoke in diff languages and the crowd listening heard it in their own language. Or that they were happy to be whipped when they spoke of Jesus against the high priests' wishes, because they were worthy to suffer in his name.
It was bittersweet finishing it because I wanted to finally get done and know the full story but I knew I was going to miss reading it every night. I read it from May 7 to June 14 so it was something I had to look forward to for quite a while. It was the best part of my day.
I was always ashamed I didn't know anything about bible stories people would talk about. I felt so lost and tried to pretend I knew what they were talking about, because I definitely should have. Now I can say I know a lot more, enough to recognize names and things.
I got annoyed with all of the mistakes. There were dozens upon dozens of typos, so many that I stopped writing them down. There were grammatical errors, lack of punctuation, punctuation in places there didn't need to be...Actually, there were so many types of errors it was ridiculous. It’s like no one went back and read it through, because even reading it once would allow you to find these. Just because it’s a kids book doesn’t mean they don’t deserve proper writing. It irritated me to no end because it’s like no care at all went into it. Also, the writing was terrible. I came to notice how badly things were written and there are about 10 better ways to say most things in here. So many times two sentences didn't follow the other in a way that made sense. I didn't know the point being made and the author should've taken more time to clarify things. I could see because the story could only be a page that the author was trying to be short and concise but that hurt the story he was telling because he cut too many things out and the parts that were left didn't flow together. Bad writing and the book should be rewritten with someone editing every single story.
I read this through at least once as a little kid. I remember reading it at night. It was nice to pull it out of my chest and reacquaint myself with it. With my recent religion revival I felt inspired to read it and learn the bible stories again.
The simple writing lends itself to children very well; it's so easy to read but has all the important details. I'm ashamed to say I didn't know the order in which God made the world, and on which days He did what. I really liked the line that said God made man to care for the earth, what with controversy debating on whether the planet is in danger and whether conservation is okay or not.
It's cool that there's a story for every day of the year. I don't remember if I read one story a night as a kid or if I read more, but I found at 24 that one wasn't enough and I wanted more to read. The stories are so short because they're not even a full page long so it didn't feel like enough to only read 1.
I was a little confused because the beginning said God made animals on the fifth day, and on the sixth He made man. But the story of Adam and Eve confused me. God made Adam and then He made animals and Adam got to name all of them. I thought God made animals first, because I was just told that. So how could He create Adam first and all those animals second if he created animals before He ever created man?
On the first day God made Day and Night. Second day He made the sky. Third day: Made dry land and plants grow. 4th day: sun, moon and stars. 5th day: God made animals. 6th day: God made man. 7th day: He rested.
In the Garden of Eden there was the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which was the bad tree.
Very interesting that since the serpent tricked Eve, God said he would always crawl on his belly and that humans would hate him and he would hate humans. They'd crush him and he would bite them. I didn't like when Eve was sentenced to have children but would be in pain. Seems like unfair punishment for women because of her sin...And guys would work for everything from the earth and sweat and suffer and return to dust.
Cain murdering his brother Abel was such an incomplete story. It gave no motive as to why. It should have stated why God wasn't pleased with Cain's gift of fruit and why he liked Abel's gift of a lamb. And it should have stated Cain was jealous of Abel because of God's favor or something. The line "Later, Cain killed Abel walking in the field" showed bad grammar. It was missing a word, like Cain killed Abel while walking in the field or while he was walking in the field. And what was the curse that God put on him? All it said was he lived outside Eden. Was that it?
It really hit home that God saw the wickedness of people and said He regretted making them, so He had all of them killed except Noah and his family because he was the only one living right. I can't believe people's lifespans were over 600 years old!
I had never heard that God made a promise to Noah once he built an altar for Him and gave Him gifts that He would never destroy the earth again and that a rainbow came into the sky as God's promise.
There were surprises and things I'm ashamed I didn't know. I didn't know Joseph of the colored coat having dreams of his brothers one day bowing down to him, and then eventually being sold as a slave in Egypt and Pharaoh making him ruler of the place and country because God told him the meaning of Pharaoh's dreams.
Typo pg 33 Joseph's son's went...
Asked questions we didn't know the answer to. Like day 45 terrible days of Egypt. Why wouldn't Pharaoh let God's people go? We don't know.
The Day 50 Food Rains from Heaven was really inspiring. The people of Israel were hungry as they traveled from Egypt and journeyed to their new land. God spoke to Moses and said he would rain food down but only to take what they needed. Leftovers would spoil. So white flakes rained down and they called it manna, which meant what is it? I thought that was so cool. And the ones left on the ground would melt in the sun and if kept overnight they would stink and have worms. It stopped falling 40 years later when they reached Canaan.
Typo pg. 52 "I'm going to rain down food from heaven for you, "he said.
It was interesting that God told Moses to have Israel build a special tent where they would meet with God, and this was called the tabernacle, or the tent of meeting. I've heard of tabernacle before and didn't know what it was.
I was confused because Aaron was the one that told the people to give him their gold earrings and he burned them down to liquid and formed the golden calf for everyone to worship. God wanted to destroy them all but Moses asked Him to reconsider. Moses asked who was with God and the tribe of Levi came forward and he had them kill all of the idol worshippers. Then a couple stories later Aaron and his sons were made priests that went into the tabernacle. Wasn't he an idol worshipper and so would have been killed? It was made even more confusing because it said he was of the tribe of Levi. What??
It was so interesting that one of the laws God gave Moses was that if someone accidently killed someone they could go to one of the six figures of refuge and escape being killed themselves. The law up to that point had been that if someone accidently killed someone, the dead person's family would kill them.
Some stories were terribly written. Things didn't add up, things would bounce around out of order from one story to the next. Questions would be asked that we didn't have the answers to. Too many times the question was about the previous story. And some questions are about what we thought instead of asking for a fact from the reading. I didn't have enough info to base my answer on and couldn't even really answer. The stories were just bare bones and didn't have a lot to offer. It was maddening.
On day 91 Ruth joins Naomi story, the author said Naomi knew God blessed Israel, then she had Naomi tell her son's wives that she hoped God would bless them and give them a new husband. But later she told Ruth that Orpah went back to her family and her gods. I was like what, she had just gotten through referencing God, and now she's mentioning polytheism? Shouldn't she have said Orpah went back to God? Because that would mean Orpah was a sinner and worshipped fake gods.
Typo pg 98 "He is a prophet who can be trusted," They said.
Pg 106 "Anoint him, This is the one."
115 Now these services where held in Jerusalem.
It was weird how David and Bathsheba's first son was killed to punish David for having her husband killed so he could get with her, then thus and another son named Solomon. Which is to say that was their oldest son, bcuz he was born next. But then the author went on to say their oldest son Absalom. Do you see how you're confusing readers with bad writing? He has to be concise bcuz it has to be a page, so there isn't a lot of time to share details, but this is beyond bad. Some things are plain contradictory and confuse the heck out of me.
The order of things was really messed up. For example, in one story King David ruled for so many years and then passed he throne to his son Solomon. The very next story said David ruled 33 years then died, was buried and Solomon sat on his throne. That's not how it was just told the page before. This makes it sound like David died first and then Solomon was the successor, when he just said David himself gave the throne over to him and obviously lived after Solomon was king.
Typo pg 135 How long did the widow have to food for Elijah?
138 O God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, show them that you are Israel's God. Turn their hearts back to you."
Typo pg 167 Why did God's anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem?
Pg 171 There Josiah found a grave. "What is that grave marker I see?" He asked.
Pg 200 How could Esther visit the Ahasuerus? (That's a person so it shouldn't say the)
202 Some people in your empire don't keep your laws."
203 What did Esther want Haman and the Jews to do for her? (This should say Mordecai and not Haman. Haman was the man wanting to kill all Jews. She wanted her cousin Mordecai and Jews to pray for her)
204 Haman, thought the king wanted to honor him.
Example of the bad writing. "Pray for me three days. I'll do the same. Then I'll go into the king."
Everything could have been written better. Pray for me for three days? Pray for her to have three days? What? She'll go into the king? Don't you mean she'll go to the king?
210 "What are these feeble Jews doing?" He mocked.
"I'm doing a great work," He replied.
Questions part only had 1 question.
211 listeneing
I couldn't wait for the appearance of people that I actually knew. It wasn't until page 212 that Elizabeth came into the story, the old woman that had the baby John. And the next page had the introduction of Mary! I had been waiting and waiting for when Jesus came into the book.
After the angel told the shepherds of Jesus' birth, I got chills as it said that the sky was full of angels praising God and saying "Glory to God in heaven. On earth, peace and good will."
I also got chills as I read the Rising Star of Christ story and the wise men said they saw his star rise in the sky.
It was new to me to learn that Mary and Joseph had to travel to Egypt to escape King Herod killing Jesus, and a prophet knew long before that this would happen and had wrote "Out of Egypt I've called my son." Also that angels warned Joseph of going back to Judea because Harod's son ruled there, so they went to Nazareth and that's why Jesus was considered a Nazarene. It's cool that long ago a prophet knew this would happen too and said He will be called a Nazarene.
221 They retuned to Nazareth..
It was so interesting to learn that Jesus knew when he was supposed to start performing miracles. He gathered Peter, who I didn't know was really named Simon and was John the Baptist's son, Andrew, James and John to follow him. There was a wedding and they ran out of wine and Mary knew Jesus could help so she told him and he said it wasn't time for him to do miracles. That was so cool. And really cool that he did it and had them fill jars with water and when they brought it to the leader it had turned to wine. It was the first time he had done something to prove he was the son of God.
It set right some things I didn't know. When Jesus went to the temple and saw that people were selling things there he drove them out for using his Father's house as a marketplace. People asked for a sign that showed he had the right to do this. He said that if they destroyed the temple he would build it up in 3 days. I didn't know that he didn't mean the temple. He meant his body, which is why after he was killed he rose in 3 days' time.
It gave me chills when I read "Well, I'm the Son of Man. I'll be lifted up on a cross. Whoever believes in me will be healed of sin and have eternal life. Because God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. Whoever believes in him won't die forever. They'll have eternal life."
The story of a man coming to Jesus and saying his son was possessed by an evil spirit and telling Him that he went to His disciples but they couldn't cure him was one I had never heard. And it was sad when Jesus said they have no faith and how much longer does He have to put up with them? It's sad He had that opinion of them.
The story about God searching for sinners, with the man that had two sons: one that stayed at home and worked for him, and another who took his own share and squandered it away, was really illuminating. The dad rejoiced at the younger son's return, celebrated and gave him his best things bcuz he had come back and turned away from sin. The older son was mad bcuz he had been the one to work there all that time and he never did anything bad. But the point was that God loves sinners and, like the one lamb that goes missing out of 99, will go looking for it and rejoice that it's back.
It was such a new concept that Jesus came to earth to seek out and save the lost. So He did things like choose a rich tax collector's house to stay in for the day.
Some stories could have used some more explanation. Like Hosanna in the highest. I had no idea what that meant.
It's so sad that Jesus prayed to God for Him not to make Him do this. Most accounts don't show this in the movies, and I like that this did. My mom told me that He cried tears and I had never heard that before or seen it in movies and I think it should have been said in here to show what He was really feeling and thinking. It's also sad that He said He was saddened and wanted them to stay awake with Him while He prayed and when He came back they were asleep.
I had never heard that soldiers played gambling games to see who won win Jesus's clothes as He was crucified. And I didn't realize that Pilate put the sign on His cross that Jesus was the king of the Jews, which seemed to be mocking him.
I think it should be included in movies that after Jesus was crucified, and the curtain ripped and rocks split, that the captain of the Roman guard said "Absolutely this man was God's Son."
It was such an oversight not to mention Mary Magdalene until after Jesus's death. Every story that included a woman around Jesus, I expected to be called Mary, the one who was a prostitute, but nope. Not a word of her, none of the women were even named, until, suddenly, she appeared out of nowhere once Jesus was coming back from death. Poor planning.
I didn't know that the Pharisees put guards outside His tomb to guard against the disciples taking Jesus's body, because they didn't really believe He would come back from death. And I didn't know an angel appeared and rolled the stone away from the tomb entrance.
I didn't know that Jesus told Mary Magdalene not to hold onto Him because He hadn't gone to His Father yet. Or that He told her to tell the disciples that He was going to His Father and their Father.
I didn't know the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and could heal people just like Jesus did. Or at Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus was crucified that once they were all filled with the Spirit they spoke in diff languages and the crowd listening heard it in their own language. Or that they were happy to be whipped when they spoke of Jesus against the high priests' wishes, because they were worthy to suffer in his name.
It was bittersweet finishing it because I wanted to finally get done and know the full story but I knew I was going to miss reading it every night. I read it from May 7 to June 14 so it was something I had to look forward to for quite a while. It was the best part of my day.
I was always ashamed I didn't know anything about bible stories people would talk about. I felt so lost and tried to pretend I knew what they were talking about, because I definitely should have. Now I can say I know a lot more, enough to recognize names and things.
I got annoyed with all of the mistakes. There were dozens upon dozens of typos, so many that I stopped writing them down. There were grammatical errors, lack of punctuation, punctuation in places there didn't need to be...Actually, there were so many types of errors it was ridiculous. It’s like no one went back and read it through, because even reading it once would allow you to find these. Just because it’s a kids book doesn’t mean they don’t deserve proper writing. It irritated me to no end because it’s like no care at all went into it. Also, the writing was terrible. I came to notice how badly things were written and there are about 10 better ways to say most things in here. So many times two sentences didn't follow the other in a way that made sense. I didn't know the point being made and the author should've taken more time to clarify things. I could see because the story could only be a page that the author was trying to be short and concise but that hurt the story he was telling because he cut too many things out and the parts that were left didn't flow together. Bad writing and the book should be rewritten with someone editing every single story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
February 27, 2026"They are good looking, but I don't want them. People only see what others look like. But I look at their heart."
"All his works are truth, his ways are just. He is able to bring low those who walk in pride."
"The real worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. God is seeking people who will worship him this way. You see, God is Spirit. So the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
"He has power to command the evil spirits. And out they come!"
"'You have so little faith,' Jesus said. 'Why did you doubt?'"
"Because you have so little faith. You could do so much with just a tiny bit of faith. Faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain into the sea. With faith, nothing would be impossible for you."
"You follow Jesus. But we're followers of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses. But we don't know where Jesus comes from."
"'The Holy Spirit was right,' Paul said. 'He said this to your ancestors: 'They'll listen, but won't catch my meaning. They'll see, but won't understand. Your words will do them no good. They won't use their eyes to look. They won't use their ears to hear. They won't understand with their minds, turn to me and be healed.' 'So I want you to know this: God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles. They'll listen.'"
"All his works are truth, his ways are just. He is able to bring low those who walk in pride."
"The real worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. God is seeking people who will worship him this way. You see, God is Spirit. So the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
"He has power to command the evil spirits. And out they come!"
"'You have so little faith,' Jesus said. 'Why did you doubt?'"
"Because you have so little faith. You could do so much with just a tiny bit of faith. Faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain into the sea. With faith, nothing would be impossible for you."
"You follow Jesus. But we're followers of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses. But we don't know where Jesus comes from."
"'The Holy Spirit was right,' Paul said. 'He said this to your ancestors: 'They'll listen, but won't catch my meaning. They'll see, but won't understand. Your words will do them no good. They won't use their eyes to look. They won't use their ears to hear. They won't understand with their minds, turn to me and be healed.' 'So I want you to know this: God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles. They'll listen.'"
June 24, 2023
Cute.
5 / 5 Stars.
Read in two big pushes. I bought this as part of a chrsistianbooks.com order for a few dollars because I thought it was cute. The stories are presented in chronological order with a focus on the history books of the old and new testament. Excellent in how things are presented and what details are dropped to keep things simple. There are 365 stories, each story has a heading, sometimes a line drawn image, and then two - three questions for the listener to answer.
I did not read these out loud, I have no experience with kids so I can't evaluate how children would respond to this.
5 / 5 Stars.
Read in two big pushes. I bought this as part of a chrsistianbooks.com order for a few dollars because I thought it was cute. The stories are presented in chronological order with a focus on the history books of the old and new testament. Excellent in how things are presented and what details are dropped to keep things simple. There are 365 stories, each story has a heading, sometimes a line drawn image, and then two - three questions for the listener to answer.
I did not read these out loud, I have no experience with kids so I can't evaluate how children would respond to this.
February 28, 2024
For the most part these stories are true to the scriptures, but I have a strong suspicion that the author divided many of these stories up in unnatural places just to hit the 365 number. Stories end suddenly and in the weirdest places. They also don’t provide much in the way of devotional application, and seem more concerned with memorizing facts and trivia rather than learning from the stories they tell. Overall I was dissatisfied.
November 9, 2017
This is a nice book to read to and or with your child. Each page is a very small story of whatever story it's talking about. It's not chapters or even pages, but one to two pages per story being told. You can read several 'stories' back to back while you've got your child interested in that particular story or just one per session. Easy way to introduce Bible study to your child.
January 2, 2019
We used this for family devotions and it was often hard going for our 4 and 3 year olds. The vocabulary is too advanced for this age group and so many of the stories are hard to follow. It really is just stories from the Bible. One thing my kids have learned this year though is that if you worship idols, things will not go well for you!
April 19, 2018
Very disappointed.
I purchased this for my grandchildren,and the first thing the author begins with is the earth already existing. No mention of God speaking the earth into being. There is no reason to continue reading something so against what actual scripture says.
I purchased this for my grandchildren,and the first thing the author begins with is the earth already existing. No mention of God speaking the earth into being. There is no reason to continue reading something so against what actual scripture says.
September 26, 2018
I absolutely LOVED this book! There are Bible stories from Genesis to Revelation. The language is simple to understand and there were some enlightened moments for me as well. I can see developing a children's curriculum from this book. I cannot stress how much I enjoyed reading it.
January 1, 2019
Used this for family devotions over the year ending with a nearly 5, 3.5 and almost 1 year old. Worked well, occasionally had to explain terminology or prompt for the right answer but helped us, and the illustrations are good too.
May 31, 2017
Not overly difficult or engaging.
Useful reference for biblical stories. Tend to pick it up when reading something which mentions or mirrors them.
Useful reference for biblical stories. Tend to pick it up when reading something which mentions or mirrors them.
July 11, 2017
I've been reading to my son every night before bed. It's designed in a way you can read a short story a day but my son asks "More!!" So we finished it in three months!
May 20, 2018
it was good.
February 5, 2022
Good for getting into a routine with your kids.
October 29, 2024
Good but not our fav.
February 7, 2026
A nightly read for my son and I, love how thorough yet simplified it it, perfect for little ones!
February 16, 2026
Good coverage from the entire Biblical narrative, paraphrased with simple follow-up questions.
May 14, 2019
Start brainwashing and indoctrinating your kids early. Show them God killing everyone in the Flood, and destroying Sodom & Gomorrah, while trying to tell the poor naive little reader that it is all done through love. Horrible, stories taken out of context, and quite poor illustrations too.
August 30, 2010
Bible stories in larger print for kid's to read.
December 7, 2010
The modern edition of Hurlbuts Bible story book with a modern style illustrations and set up for reading in one year.
December 22, 2015
Nice reading for information, highly recommend
Currently reading
August 11, 2015simple for kids, mainly is text.
May 14, 2016
i like
January 6, 2019
Wonderful
Really enjoyed reading this with my 4 year old daughter for the year 2018. I highly reccomend this book for reading time with kids.
Really enjoyed reading this with my 4 year old daughter for the year 2018. I highly reccomend this book for reading time with kids.
April 10, 2021
Excellent biblical daily readings. I really liked that this went beyond the standard Sunday School stories to include others.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews