God Gave Us The Bible:  45 Favorite Stories For Little Ones, by Lisa Tawn Bergen, art by David Hohm

[Note:  This book was provided free of charge by Multnomah/Waterbrook Press.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

As a Sabbath School teacher who tends to focus on aspects of stories that are a bit more dark and grim and real than most child-friendly portrayals of the Bible, I am fascinated by the way that people seek to present the Bible in a way that is appealing to children and that also does not run afoul of the sensitivities of contemporary parents.  What struck me as particularly odd about this book was the way that it focused on talking animals in a way that presents a perhaps unforeseen difficulty.  The talking animals here are generally cute and suitably obvious in setting up obvious explanations by the author about challenging aspects of the stories for children to understand, but the lack of relevance for the Bible’s promise to human beings as children of God (promises that animals have not received) makes the fact that animals are voicing these stories as somewhat odd and even a little bit off-putting.  To be sure, the author is not attempting to be off-putting in any way, but having animals celebrate what is directed at and gives great promises to humans that they do not share in is somewhat more melancholy than I would expect from a children’s book.

This particular book takes about 150 pages to tell 45 stories through the point of view of talking wild animals.  The stories themselves are heavily concentrated in the beginning of the Bible as well as in the Gospels.  So we have stories about creation, Adam & Eve, leaving the garden, Noah’s ark, God’s choice of Abraha, Sarah giving birth to Isaac, Joseph and his coat, Joseph sold as a slave, Joseph imprisoned in Egypt, Pharaoh’s dreams, and Joseph and his brothers going to Egypt from Genesis.  We then have have baby Moses’ adoption, Moses’ flight from Egypt, the burning bush, Moses confronting Pharaoh, fleeing Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, and the ten commandments from Exodus.  After that the following stories are the only remaining ones from the Hebrew scriptures:  David and Goliath, Queen Esther, the bravery of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Daniel in the lion’s den.  The rest of the stories spring from the New Testament, and as one would imagine they focus mainly on Jesus’ life and teachings.  Beyond these, the book closes with stories of Paul’s Damascus road conversion as well as his apostolic efforts.

Overall, this book is a generally enjoyable one in the way that it tells stories about the Bible to children.  To be sure, one would always want more stories to be told, but it is little surprise that this book focuses on Genesis and Exodus as well as the New Testament as these stories are likely to be of the most interest to those wishing to teach the Bible to children without a focus on some of the darker stories that I would personally focus more on.  Be that as it may, this book does focus on enough aspects of the Bible to allow for some serious conversations not only about divine providence but also about the hostility of people to the servants of God.  Pondering why evil authorities and corrupt people would be hostile to those who follow God is the sort of serious lesson that children would be well-serve to reflect upon so that opposition does not surprise them when they are faithful teenagers or young adults, and are able to handle it.  By and large, though, this book provides innocent perspectives of biblical stories that is best suited to younger kids just becoming familiar with the Bible.