One Rule to Ring Them All

Posted by Andy Naselli on Jan 13, 2010 in children's literature, novels, preaching | 2 comments

How’s that for the title of a sermon on the story of Adam and Eve’s fall in Genesis 3? It popped into my head while my daughter and I read that story from The Jesus Storybook Bible.

(Jenni and I are currently listening to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy [1, 2, 3] in which the “One Ring to rule them all” is prominent.)

Six Books for Children on the Bible’s Storyline

Posted by Andy Naselli on Jan 7, 2010 in Paul Maier, children's literature | 13 comments

In 2008, Jenni and I profited from reading two “documentary novels” by Paul Maier:

Pontius Pilate
The Flames of Rome

We recently received six of his books for children, and they’re outstanding.

2. The Real Story of the Flood

3. The Real Story of the Exodus

4. The Very First Christmas

Jenni warmly recalls reading this many times as a child.

6. The Very First Christians

The picture of Agrippa (p. 27) reminds me of someone I know!

Related: About a year ago, Jenni and I reviewed several hundred children’s books and highlighted our favorites: “Theology for Kids.”

Jesus Storybook Bible Deluxe Edition

Posted by Andy Naselli on Nov 9, 2009 in Jenni Naselli, children's literature | 3 comments

A guest post by Jenni Naselli

Our family was recently delighted to obtain The Jesus Storybook Bible, Deluxe Edition. Here’s what Andy and I wrote last year about this book in our review of theology books for kids:

Sally Lloyd-Jones. The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name. Illustrated by Jago. Grand Rapids: ZonderKidz, 2007. 352 pp. $16.99.

This is the most well written children’s book we have read. It brilliantly summarizes the Bible storyline from creation to the consummation, and it emphasizes Jesus and the gospel as the key to understanding the Bible’s storyline. The subtitle captures exactly what the book does: at the end of each story, Lloyd-Jones points ahead to the story’s fulfillment in Christ (though the pointing-ahead theme seems slightly stretched for some of the stories). Lloyd-Jones acknowledges that she has “liberally borrowed” from her pastor, Tim Keller, “whose teaching informs every story” (p. 7). She skillfully crafts words that are captivating, making it hard to stop reading. Some readers may become so entrenched in the story that they will find themselves wishing that it is true (perhaps forgetting that this well written story is not a fairy tale) and then rejoicing that it is! The illustrations are simple, creative, and almost fanciful.

The deluxe edition enhances this excellent Bible-story book by adding the complete book on three audio CDs. We’ve already thoroughly enjoyed listening to several of the stories together as a family. The tracks are divided by story, and each story is approximately four minutes long—perfect for a young child’s shorter attention span. The stories are each read by British actor David Suchet. Our family loves audiobooks, and we’re thrilled now to have The Jesus Storybook Bible audiobook!

Theology for Kids

Posted by Andy Naselli on Dec 17, 2008 in Jenni Naselli, Themelios, children's literature | 8 comments

The latest issue of Themelios includes the following review article that my wife and I coauthored:

Andrew David Naselli and Jennifer J. Naselli. “Theology for Kids: Recommending Some Recent Books for Younger Children.” [Also available in HTML.] Themelios 33:3 (2008): 120–25.

Excerpt:

Without pretending to be experts on theological children’s literature, we have sorted through recent theology books for younger children and compiled a short list of outstanding books. Other books are undoubtedly worthy of mention, but these are our favorites. What follows organizes them in three categories and ranks the books in order, beginning with our top recommendations.