Read and Share Toddler Bible

A month ago, my friend Steve told me about the Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers opportunity. After signing up, my first book choice was the Read and Share Toddler Bible by Gwen Ellis. At first, that may seem like an odd selection; however, I am Dad to an 8-year old, 2-year old, and an 11-day old. In addition, I am a participant in a 4-year old church plant with several young couples who have young children. Consequently, I expect to turn the pages of the Read and Share Toddler Bible quite often. In this review, I will summarize the strengths and limitations of the Toddler Bible and provide additional “likes and suggestions” at the end.

There are many strengths to the Read and Share Toddler Bible. First, Gwen Ellis’ active writing style is a dramatic strength of the work. For example, in “Noah and the Big Boat,” Ellis tells the story in the following manner, “[Noah] found some boards and his saw. Then Noah went to work. Pound! Pound! Saw! Saw!...Crrrrrreak! Crrrrrreak! God shut the door of the boat. It started to rain. Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter. The wind blew. Oooo! Ooooo!...” (25 & 29) When reading aloud to my 2-year old son, he enjoys chiming in with the story whenever an action word comes along. Second, the illustrations throughout the book are just as inviting as the active writing style. We live in a time where images are quickly taking the place of words as conveyors of truth, meaning, and information. Therefore, especially in a toddler Bible, the images must be large, sharp, detailed, colorful, and powerful tellers of the story. Steve Smallman does all of that and more. Furthermore, he creatively includes small animals like rabbits and birds in many of the pictures that draw the attention of toddlers and add a nice touch to the stories. Additional strengths to the Read and Share Toddler Bible are the parent/child activities at the conclusion of each story. They provide opportunities for reflection, conversation, and action involving both parent and child. Finally, I appreciate the inclusion of the Scripture references for the Bible stories. Many of the parents that I work with or am reaching out to through our church plant do not know most of the Bible stories that many who have grown up in church have been exposed to time and again. As a result, including the Scripture references to the stories becomes extremely important, because I am hopeful that as parents are reading these 40 stories to their children, they are also cracking open their “not-so-toddler” Bibles to engage the stories by themselves or with others. In my opinion, the Read and Share Toddler Bible does well with all of the above.

The Read and Share Toddler Bible has limitations as well. First, to me, the overall vibe of the work seems heavily centered on the toddler. If I were you, at this point I would be shaking my head at the computer screen saying, “Isn’t the book a toddler Bible?” My response here is one of understanding; however, after finishing the book, I felt a tension revealed in the following question: How do we convey identity, worth, the goodness of God, security with God, love, acceptance, forgiveness, and inclusion to toddlers while also portraying a life with God to be lived for the sake of others? For example, minus the “Jesus Loves You” ending, the grand crescendo of the book is the story entitled “Jesus Goes to Heaven.” In my opinion, the story misses the point by concluding with the following section, “We are still waiting for our Best Friend, Jesus, to come back. He will come, and when He does, we will be with Him forever!” Is it too far-fetched to think that a toddler may respond with the following question: “If Jesus is my best friend, why isn’t he here with me?” What if the finale story of the book were a call to mission? Especially when utilizing the Acts 1:6-11 text, what if we introduced and called our toddlers and their mommies and daddies to a Spirit-empowered life of mission where we don’t sit around and “imagine heaven,” but we participate as little Christs with God breaking into the hear and now with glimpses of heaven? My toddler doesn’t need any help viewing the world as all about him. Instead, he needs his parents, grandparents, siblings, church, friends, and Bible to open his eyes to others in need, pain, brokenness, poverty, and sorrow. Throughout the Read and Share Toddler Bible, I did not experience a call to live with God for the sake of others. Second, the two garden stories miss the point also. Adam and Eve’s waywardness in the Garden is much more than a “no-no.” What if the story was framed less as a “no-no,” and more as a rejection of relationship with God? Toddlers can understand rejection and broken relationships, and this seems to be the bigger theme taking shape in the story. Why does the “Adam and Eve and the Sneaky Snake” story end with “Out you go...You can’t live in the garden anymore” (21) instead of a retelling of Genesis 3:21? At this point in the Story, community between God and humans, humans and humans, and humans and creation have been severed; however, God does not relent in his pursuit of relationship with humanity. Finally, I felt like the Toddler Bible struggled in the area of incarnation. Okay, I’m not advocating that the word “incarnation” should have been used in the work; however, tell my toddler a little more about who Jesus is. For example, in “Sleepy Sleepy Shepherds,” the story concludes, “There in the straw is a tiny, wee one. It is the Savior. It is God’s Baby Son.” What does “Savior” and “God’s Baby Son” mean? Are there ways of explaining “Messiah-Jesus” to toddlers? This leads me to a subset of this limitation: the cross seemed to be an add-on to the “Jesus and His Donkey” story. On pages 174-175, the people are celebrating Jesus and on page 176, all of a sudden, “Jesus had something important to do.” This seems confusing. My toddler son and I have had conversations about Jesus’ death and resurrection, and I would have preferred a more prominent telling of the story. There are a few limitations to the Read and Share Toddler Bible.

The Read and Share Toddler Bible was an eye-catcher for me. In our church plant, at least one woman has been pregnant at any given time since April 2005. As you can see, we have toddlers everywhere! In addition, I have a toddler of my own, an 8-year old, and a newborn. Therefore, I was eager to read, reflect upon, and review the Toddler Bible. I have not gone through such a process with a toddler Bible before, and I must say that it was quite enjoyable. Throughout this process, my 8-year old read the Read and Share Toddler Bible from cover to cover as well, and we have been reading through it on most nights with all of our kids. As with any book, there are strengths and limitations to the Toddler Bible; however, I would recommend it for use in our church and home. Below, I have includes additional “likes and suggestions,” and a review-oriented comment from my 8-year old.

Additional Likes
*The Noah stories were my favorites.

*The Jericho and shepherd David stories were fun as well.

*Color-coding the page numbers was creative.

*The “Word to Parents” was thoughtful and inciteful as to Gwen Ellis' ideas in writing the stories.

Suggestions
*Include a “God said that it was good” comment in the “In the Beginning” story.

*Leave the “Out of the Garden” story out.

*“Moses Leads the People” should include the people in slavery and crying out to God for deliverance.

*What about share your fish sticks with your neighbors and/or friends as an addition to the parent/child activity at the end of “A Little Boy with a Lunch?”

*Tell us more about Zacchaeus.

My 8-year old was most impressed by the colorful story headings and the illustrations.

Thomas Nelson's Product Details
Format: Hardcover w/DVD

Trim Size: 6.10 x 7.10 x 0.9

Page Count: 192

Retail Price: $14.99

ISBN-10: 140031464X

ISBN-13: 978-1400314645

Have you read this book? Are you considering a read of this book? Are you interested in sparking a discussion of the themes, points, critiques, and challenges of this book? Do you have questions or counterpoints of assertions from this book? Post a comment and join the conversation.