In 2005, DK brought kids My Very First Bible, a collection of favorite Bible stories with pictures by acclaimed illustrator Diana Mayo. Now, this same material is available in a convenient compact format with a padded soft-to-touch cover. With simple text geared toward beginning readers, My Little Picture Bible is the perfect Bible storybook for parents and toddlers to share.
Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.
Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.
This came so close to being a good and useful book: Mayo's illustrations are gorgeous, for one thing. The text does fun, curvy things that encourage play and creativity. And the people in the illustrations are not white, which is a huge win. I also appreciated the invitations to engage the images ("can you count the animals," "what colors do you see") that weren't overbearing to the image themselves or too frequent such that it became a didactic book. They were just right.
But the text itself. The text was just terrible. I get that every kids' Bible needs to make decisions about what to include and what to take out and that a lot is going to end up on the cutting room floor, but the choices of stories here cut out every female possible. Ruth is gone, Esther is gone, even Eve and Mary are basically footnotes. The "New Testament" was just clips from the Gospels, which is silly because the Gospels are only four out of 27 books, and even kids should know stuff like Paul's travels throughout the Mediterranean and the creation of the Church and the heavenly Jerusalem--if we can tell them about Noah and how freaking everyone died, then we can at least reference Revelation. But the Gospels section included a few parables, which is cool, except that it then did all the theology for the reader, which is not. Prefacing a parable with "this means this" discourages theological consideration, which anyone who's ever led a children's moment recognizes kids do with ferocity.
This is such a beautiful book until you read the text; that's a terrible intro for kids to the wonder and complexity of Scripture. Looks at the pictures. Skip the text.
This is the BEST children's bible I've seen. The artwork is excellent. Most children's Bibles have artwork that is shamefully bad. But this is simply outstanding. The story selection is very limited, but of course, this is a very short Bible. My kids love looking through this one, and I too find it is my preferred story Bible.
EN review ↓ genel hatlarıyla İncil’i bilmek, temel anlatılara hakim olmak için güzel bir kaynak. illüstrasyonlu kitaplara zaafım zaten ortada, bu kitabı da ondan hemencik okumak istemiştim. çizimleri beğendim diyebilirim. ↓ this is a good source book for learning Bible in generaly and mastering the basic stories. you know, i got a thing for illustrated booyks, which is wh i want to read it right away.
The illustrations are very nice, the representations are accurate (i.e., the people look like they are from the Middle East where these stories are set), the stories are extremely limited not just in selection but in depth. I know it's for children but...eh. Not sure what to give this one as a rating.
This DK book is an introduction to the Old Testament and New Testament Bible for toddlers and teens. The gentle illustrations convey the story magnificently and movingly.
This book is excellent. My younger child can read it and understand it. When I read from the real bible, we always recap with this book first. My son likes the pictures in it as well. I really recommend it to anyone who has younger children.
I like this version - detailed enough to hit the major stories with names/places but basic enough for kids to understand (at pre-k level and up). Also has verses in it.