Friday, August 7, 2015

Book Review: Five-Minute Bedtime Bible Stories

Five Minute Bedtime Bible Stories. Retold by Amy Parker. Illustrated by Walter Carzon. 2015. Scholastic. 192 pages. [Source: Review copy]

I enjoyed reading Amy Parker's Five Minute Bedtime Bible Stories. It did indeed take me about an hour to read the whole book--all twelve stories. I imagine it would be difficult to select only twelve stories for a bible story book collection. (I know that I would find it a challenging task.) Consider that plenty of bible story books have around twelve stories just from the first two books of the Bible--Genesis and Exodus.  

Six stories are from the Old Testament:

  • Trees, Bees, You, and Me!
  • A Big, Big Boat for a Big, Big Flood
  • Walls of Water
  • A Boy, A Giant, and an Almighty God
  • The Brave Young Queen
  • Safe in the Lions' Den

Six stories are from the New Testament:

  • A Child is Born
  • Seeds and Storms
  • One Little Lunch
  • Now I See
  • Who Is My Neighbor?
  • Jesus is Alive!

The stories are detailed and descriptive.
Daisies and daffodils jumped up from the soil! Lilies and lilacs bloomed big and beautiful! Trees stretched out their bright green leaves, reaching for the sun. Apples burst forth in red and green and yellow. Tall grasses, reeds, and wheat waved in the new, sweet-smelling breeze. (2)
Somehow, every time a person reached for food, it was there. The people ate and ate. And somehow, everyone ate until they were full. Before long, over five thousand people had been fed. (142)
Even after all of Jesus's miracles, the Pharisees did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God. But with just one miracle, the blind man believed. (161)
Overall, I enjoyed this one. I was pleased with the story selection. I was pleased with the length of each story. I really enjoyed the six stories from the New Testament. I thought these six stories did a good job--cohesively telling the story of Jesus. The Old Testament stories were not as interconnected as I would have liked. (Also no stories about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or Joseph!) It would have been nice if the word 'sin' had been mentioned. I won't lie. Yes, readers meet Adam and Eve, but, there isn't a mention of the fall…at all…or of them leaving the garden of Eden. And I think all twelve stories could have been linked together better with a little work. The Bible is one big story, after all. That being said, I did enjoy it.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

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