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The Beginner's Bible: Timeless Children's Stories
Introduce children to the stories and characters of the Bible with this best-loved Bible storybook. With vibrant art and compelling text, more than 90 Bible stories come to life. Kids ages 6 and under will enjoy the fun illustrations of Noah helping the elephant onto the ark, Jonah praying inside the fish, and more, as they discover The Beginner's Bible just like millions of children before. The Beginner's Bible is the 2006 Retailers Choice Award winner in Children's Nonfiction.
512 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
About the author
Kelly Pulley
165 books35 followersWhen Kelly Pulley was very young, he dreamed of being a cowboy; unfortunately, he didn’t have a horse, a hat, or a rope, so his range riding dreams were temporarily corralled. He did have a Deluxe 64-count box of Crayola Crayons with a built-in sharpener — so instead of cow poking, he became an artist.
Now Kelly is a full-time writer and illustrator of children’s picture books. He has illustrated numerous children’s books, including many in the Best-selling Beginner’s Bible and Veggie Tales series.
He has authored and illustrated several picture books, including the outlandish and wacky Ten Unusual Features of Lulu McDunn (Gauthier Publishing), the humorous, Bicycle-themed Bicycling Rules of the Road, and The Cycling Wangdoos, (Schiffer Publishing).
Kelly is also the author of the inspirational Magnificent Tales series, Food for a Fish — The Whopping Story of Jonah and the Whale, Good News of Great Joy — The Amazing Story of Jesus’ Birth, The Biggest and Toughest — The Short Story of David’s Big Faith, Daniel for Lunch — The Tasty Tale of Daniel in the Lion’s Den and Treasury of Bible Stories — Rhythmical Rhymes of Biblical Times (David C. Cook).
His illustrating clients include: Zonderkidz, Worthy-Ideals, David C. Cook, Lifeway, Wiley Publications, United Methodist Publishing House, The Clever Factory, Studio Fun International.
Now Kelly is a full-time writer and illustrator of children’s picture books. He has illustrated numerous children’s books, including many in the Best-selling Beginner’s Bible and Veggie Tales series.
He has authored and illustrated several picture books, including the outlandish and wacky Ten Unusual Features of Lulu McDunn (Gauthier Publishing), the humorous, Bicycle-themed Bicycling Rules of the Road, and The Cycling Wangdoos, (Schiffer Publishing).
Kelly is also the author of the inspirational Magnificent Tales series, Food for a Fish — The Whopping Story of Jonah and the Whale, Good News of Great Joy — The Amazing Story of Jesus’ Birth, The Biggest and Toughest — The Short Story of David’s Big Faith, Daniel for Lunch — The Tasty Tale of Daniel in the Lion’s Den and Treasury of Bible Stories — Rhythmical Rhymes of Biblical Times (David C. Cook).
His illustrating clients include: Zonderkidz, Worthy-Ideals, David C. Cook, Lifeway, Wiley Publications, United Methodist Publishing House, The Clever Factory, Studio Fun International.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 262 reviews
December 29, 2016
Bible story books are such a wonderful tool to have on hand to introduce the young child to the Bible and the bare-bones of the Word of God. You can choose to have one or you can choose to have a variety so that your child can experience the many "tellings" and "illustrative styles" of authors and artists as they bring to life what God reveals to mankind in his word.
Now a Bible storybook is not nor should be considered to be the actual Word of God. It is an introduction to and base of study for beginners. Hence the writers, illustrators, and publishers have labored diligently to bring to your home a book worthy of it's title - The Beginner's Bible from ZonderKidz an imprint of Zondervan.
This new edition of the originally published in 1989 Beginner's Bible just exudes life and brilliance in the attention-grabbing, child centric illustrations rendered in a virtual 3-D effect in stong, bright colors.
This will become a well-loved book by your child and you will delight that your child loves hearing about the many wonderful men and women from the Bible. A great preparation for the years when the real Bible will become an integral part of their own life.
I receieved a complimentary copy to facilitate a review of my honest opinions without compensation. Opinions are solely my own.
Now a Bible storybook is not nor should be considered to be the actual Word of God. It is an introduction to and base of study for beginners. Hence the writers, illustrators, and publishers have labored diligently to bring to your home a book worthy of it's title - The Beginner's Bible from ZonderKidz an imprint of Zondervan.
This new edition of the originally published in 1989 Beginner's Bible just exudes life and brilliance in the attention-grabbing, child centric illustrations rendered in a virtual 3-D effect in stong, bright colors.
This will become a well-loved book by your child and you will delight that your child loves hearing about the many wonderful men and women from the Bible. A great preparation for the years when the real Bible will become an integral part of their own life.
I receieved a complimentary copy to facilitate a review of my honest opinions without compensation. Opinions are solely my own.
June 16, 2021
This is just what the title says; it’s a beginners’s Bible that tells ninety-four well known stories that children will often hear in Sunday School. I would recommend this for toddlers through first grade. The stories and brightly colored illustrations are simple and fun for the young ones, and when your child ages, the simpler words and short sentences makes for a great beginner reader! My kindergartener was so happy to be able to read this Bible on her own.
January 14, 2022
This is a great brief paraphrase of the Bible for little ones (probably ages 0-5). It’s my second time reading through it with my toddler, and he enjoyed it both times and was around ages 2 and 3 when we finished through it each time. This time we often read it alongside the actual Bible passages (which are listed with each story).
Overall, it’s faithful to the text minus maybe a couple of debatable interpretations. It’s a great starter Bible to help babies and toddlers get the overarching story of Scripture while still highlighting major Bible stories and concepts.
Overall, it’s faithful to the text minus maybe a couple of debatable interpretations. It’s a great starter Bible to help babies and toddlers get the overarching story of Scripture while still highlighting major Bible stories and concepts.
May 1, 2026
For the last twenty years, THE BEGINNER’s BIBLE - Timeless Children’s Stories, by Zonderkidz, has been the top selling kids bible. It includes nearly 100 stories split evenly between the Old and New testaments.
When I was actively teaching Sunday School to the littlest souls in my church, this book was a beloved member of my library. What began with this single volume is now an entire publishing collection for kids. This Bible is now available in Spanish, as well as English, as are quite a few of the incremental titles.
Parents and teachers will find titles in the I CAN READ series, for early readers, workbooks for young students, coloring, sticker and activity along with holiday seasonal favorites.
One of my favorite features of this book and series are the characters. Each one is drawn uniquely and appears exactly the same from book to book, regardless of what type of book you’ve chosen. Moses in the Bible story book will look just like Moses in a workbook, read along or bathtub book! Children who have regular adventures with the series can easily recognize each one.
The colors are bright, expressions on faces are full of emotions and humor is used extremely well. Emotions like fear and worry are shown on facial expressions without becoming scary for children. Relief from tension happens quickly, resolving into love, humor, praise and pointing little hearts to God.
My copy is worn but the binding is still strong after 20 years of heavy usage. I think there is only one page with a tear from little fingers and the colors are as bright as on day one. A Kindle version wasn’t available when I purchased my original book so I finally took the time to investigate it. Kindle is the version I’d select now for teaching because of the ability to display single pages and “blow them up” in size. My only quibble is that the table of context is not interactive. Zonderkidz needs to make that improvement!
Highly recommended for home, school and church libraries📚
When I was actively teaching Sunday School to the littlest souls in my church, this book was a beloved member of my library. What began with this single volume is now an entire publishing collection for kids. This Bible is now available in Spanish, as well as English, as are quite a few of the incremental titles.
Parents and teachers will find titles in the I CAN READ series, for early readers, workbooks for young students, coloring, sticker and activity along with holiday seasonal favorites.
One of my favorite features of this book and series are the characters. Each one is drawn uniquely and appears exactly the same from book to book, regardless of what type of book you’ve chosen. Moses in the Bible story book will look just like Moses in a workbook, read along or bathtub book! Children who have regular adventures with the series can easily recognize each one.
The colors are bright, expressions on faces are full of emotions and humor is used extremely well. Emotions like fear and worry are shown on facial expressions without becoming scary for children. Relief from tension happens quickly, resolving into love, humor, praise and pointing little hearts to God.
My copy is worn but the binding is still strong after 20 years of heavy usage. I think there is only one page with a tear from little fingers and the colors are as bright as on day one. A Kindle version wasn’t available when I purchased my original book so I finally took the time to investigate it. Kindle is the version I’d select now for teaching because of the ability to display single pages and “blow them up” in size. My only quibble is that the table of context is not interactive. Zonderkidz needs to make that improvement!
Highly recommended for home, school and church libraries📚
April 5, 2026
We read through this with our toddler, and we all loved it! He constantly asked for it. He can now name many Bible characters and correctly remembers a lot of stories. The illustrations are a bit derpy, as my husband likes to say, and there’s one illustration at the end trying to depict God, so I dinged it a star. It is a great tool to introduce Bible stories to young children. My favorite is when my 3 year old asks, “Can we read about God?” YES, my love! Always yes!
October 12, 2019
October 2019:
My 5-year old son has wanted some of these stories read to him in the past, but he became very interested in them about a week ago. He had some very insightful questions about the bible, which was neat to see at such a young age. I even learned some Old Testament history by reading this to him!
My 5-year old son has wanted some of these stories read to him in the past, but he became very interested in them about a week ago. He had some very insightful questions about the bible, which was neat to see at such a young age. I even learned some Old Testament history by reading this to him!
April 7, 2019
I think it might be a little childish but it is 500 something pages long but it is pretty good
February 4, 2023
❤️ bibles tbh
October 26, 2023
It’s a nice narrative of pretty much all the stories in the Bible. I like that it gave some actual quotes from the Bible and “vocab” terms that were italicized. For example “anointed,” “priests,” “psalms,” “tabernacle,” “sabbath,” “Golgotha,” and “alter” just to name a few. I didn’t love the pictures because it gives the perception of a made up story instead of instilling in children the reality of these events, plus many of the pictures are not even close to being historically accurate.
April 5, 2025
We slowly worked our way through this with our two kids (3 and 5) and will go through it many times again and again. It’s a nice refresher to read the stories in a simple way as an adult, in a way that’s meant for a child. And to see my children hear The Word in a way they can understand is something that makes my heart happy. My son was so happy to say we read the whole Bible when we read the last story tonight. He asked if we could read it again & obviously the answer was yes.
June 16, 2021
Bible stories are accurately based on The Holy Scriptures, simplified for young children. The illustrations are excellent and engaging for children. I’ve used this particular Bible story book for my four children and grandson.
September 24, 2024
I finished the book. I think kids will like this book
January 26, 2012
After enjoying the Animal Adventures Collection board books set so much I knew I needed to check out the actual The Beginner's Bible: Timeless Children's Stories. I have to tell you I am very pleased. Oh, now that I remember we also have an eBook Very First Easter and while in those pages Jesus is the only person with a pointed nose and everyone else is very rounded... I wondered at the time if that was meant to make him visually stand out, but after reading the full Bible version I see he is not alone in that anatomical feature.
The illustrations are vibrant with color and friendly faces all prepared to help children learn the full Gospel message from Creation to John's Revelation. The text is great too. Using full fun descriptive words, kids and parents alike can get excited about reading this one aloud. There is a reason why over five million copies have sold. From the great, and now familiar, images and a good size font I am very excited to use this to read to and teach my daughter to read. Each story has a title and scripture reference which I think helps to guide the child and will allow for further depth into a story as she grows. As for me, definitely on the keeper shelf.
They also have a very neat website with interesting things for parents and teachers. I just might have to spend some time there. Oh, and while my edition is a great size hardcover, the Bible is now available in eBook format - so no excuses on shelf space or portability!
*Thanks to Zondervan for providing a copy for review.*
Scheduled post: http://creativemadnessmama.com/blog/2...
The illustrations are vibrant with color and friendly faces all prepared to help children learn the full Gospel message from Creation to John's Revelation. The text is great too. Using full fun descriptive words, kids and parents alike can get excited about reading this one aloud. There is a reason why over five million copies have sold. From the great, and now familiar, images and a good size font I am very excited to use this to read to and teach my daughter to read. Each story has a title and scripture reference which I think helps to guide the child and will allow for further depth into a story as she grows. As for me, definitely on the keeper shelf.
They also have a very neat website with interesting things for parents and teachers. I just might have to spend some time there. Oh, and while my edition is a great size hardcover, the Bible is now available in eBook format - so no excuses on shelf space or portability!
*Thanks to Zondervan for providing a copy for review.*
Scheduled post: http://creativemadnessmama.com/blog/2...
September 6, 2011
This was my book when I was little. Now Gabriel reads it and LOVES it. He begs to read his Bible. His favorite stories are David and Goliath (he can recite the story word for word) and he gets a kick out of the story of the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary :) Really easy for children to understand, even for my two year old. It has stories that I was a little unfamiliar with!
April 10, 2020
My 5 year old and I read this together and we both really enjoyed it. It's my favorite children's Bible I've found for her age. She's asked for multiple stories from it each night since we got it.
January 15, 2023
boring and predictable tbh 🙄
May 8, 2023
rating this from the perspective of my 7-8 yr old self.
June 28, 2023
watched good omens and now i’m back in my christianity arc (i’m agnostic)
March 21, 2026
This thick hardcover book is filled with Bible stories for children and bright, colorful pictures on every page. It brings back found memories of being read Bible stories as a child. The stories are easy to understand, and the characters are described in a simple, loving way. Even as an adult, I enjoy the stories.
Easter is a special celebration, and the Beginner's Bible books help young readers understand why it matters.
#CoverLoverBookReview received a review copy of this book. Opinions are my own.
Easter is a special celebration, and the Beginner's Bible books help young readers understand why it matters.
#CoverLoverBookReview received a review copy of this book. Opinions are my own.
October 22, 2020
Of all the books we have, my son wants to read "the Bible book" for his bedtime story. We started around the time he was ~2.5, reading three stories each night. There's enough content that I don't get bored having to repeat the book once we get to the end. I think he likes the pictures and the characters, particularly Jesus. I think the illustrations are fine, thought I must note that some of the pictures are borderline inappropriate, with about half of the women depicted with very form-fitting clothes. The worst culprit is one where the disciples are baptizing people, and the book depicts a woman with skin-tight clothing, with big blue water droplets on her clothes where her nipples would be. I thought, hey, maybe it's just me noticing that, but my wife was the first one to vocalize it. :-P
December 29, 2025
I loved reading this even as an adult. Borrowed it from my niece and nephew and plan to read it to them soon!
I’m a follower of Christ, but have never thoroughly read the bible. I go to church on a semi-regular basis so know some passages, but this was a great introduction to stories and people I haven’t learned about.
Reading this quick synopsis gives me excitement, and almost makes reading the Bible a little less intimidating now that I have brief understanding.
I’m a follower of Christ, but have never thoroughly read the bible. I go to church on a semi-regular basis so know some passages, but this was a great introduction to stories and people I haven’t learned about.
Reading this quick synopsis gives me excitement, and almost makes reading the Bible a little less intimidating now that I have brief understanding.
December 16, 2017
It good for kids
April 11, 2023
great read not even religious but 5 ⭐️- pictures really add sm fun yk
February 3, 2024
Good for toddlers and young children. The illustrations are far from accurate, but the girls didn't mind.
May 9, 2025
it left out some stories, but...😃😃😃
Read
October 25, 2026Best to ever do it
April 11, 2023
I know this is a children’s book but as a person who is fairly new to Christianity and did not grow up knowing the stories this was SO helpful! I recommend to anyone interested in Christianity to start with a kids bible to get the basics
January 22, 2025
thought this would be an easy way to get a better grasp of biblical themes and allusions and it definitely was! i did realize that i have been thinking jonah and joan of arc were the same person my whole life. also judas and brutus. they just have similar names and lived experiences! well im not sure if joan of arc ever lived inside a whale but i think because her name has arc in it i also confused her with noah and therefor the ocean. also, i really wanted to hear the story about the prodigal son because i thought the frasier pilot was titled that, and then when i heard it i was like wow that makes so much sense for frasier! but then i googled it and the pilot isnt even called that so i dont know why i thought that. i get really confused sometimes but this kept things very simple and i liked that!
December 13, 2018
Introducing my children to Jesus is our greatest privilege that we never take for granted. We want to give them the best tools to show who Jesus is and what He did for them. That's why we like The Beginner's Bible.
For babies and toddlers, the colorful pictures captivate them and hold their attention. Preschoolers and early readers will enjoy the short paragraphs which make reading along with us easy to follow along. For older siblings, they have a wonderful opportunity to be the teachers and read it aloud or simply sit back and listen and correct when necessary.
Each story is easily marked by a title and Scripture reference making marking your spot in between readings easy to do! Another plus is the dictionary in the back clarifying any new words to your young children.
Finding a great storybook Bible is a precious way to introduce your child to the Lord. From color to content, The Beginner's Bible is perfect for feeding a child's faith. I highly recommend it for families of young children.
I was given two copies of this Bible in exchange for my honest opinion. No compensation was received and this review is solely my personal opinion. You can read the full review at farmwyfe.com.
For babies and toddlers, the colorful pictures captivate them and hold their attention. Preschoolers and early readers will enjoy the short paragraphs which make reading along with us easy to follow along. For older siblings, they have a wonderful opportunity to be the teachers and read it aloud or simply sit back and listen and correct when necessary.
Each story is easily marked by a title and Scripture reference making marking your spot in between readings easy to do! Another plus is the dictionary in the back clarifying any new words to your young children.
Finding a great storybook Bible is a precious way to introduce your child to the Lord. From color to content, The Beginner's Bible is perfect for feeding a child's faith. I highly recommend it for families of young children.
I was given two copies of this Bible in exchange for my honest opinion. No compensation was received and this review is solely my personal opinion. You can read the full review at farmwyfe.com.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 262 reviews