Several months ago I learned about audio resources for children from “Your Story Hour.”
I can’t speak for their other products yet, but we’ve enjoyed listening to “The Bible Comes Alive Series,” 120 dramatized Bible stories for kids (2.1 days worth of audio):
About the stories: [Read more…] about Dramatized Bible Stories for Kids
I recently highlighted my favorite versions of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress that I’ve read to my three-year-old daughter:
Here’s another:
John Bunyan. Pilgrim’s Progress. Edited by Gary Schmidt. Illustrated by Barry Moser. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.
- Large hardcover (12.3 x 9.4 x 0.6 inches):
- Small hardcover (8.6 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches):
Young children would appreciate it if the picture-to-text ratio were better, but the text is beautifully written.
My top two favorites for young children are still the Pictorial Pilgrim’s Progress and Dangerous Journey 
.
I recently finished reading all 215 stories in this book to my three-year-old daughter:
Doug Mauss, ed. The Action Bible: God’s Redemptive Story. 
Illustrated by Sergio Cariello. Colorado Springs, CO: Cook, 2010. 748 pp. Audiobook, 10.2-hours.
Thoughts:
Our three-year-old daughter enjoyed this new book after it arrived in the mail yesterday:
R. C. Sproul. The Barber Who Wanted to Pray. Paintings by T. Lively Fluharty. Wheaton: Crossway, 2011. 33 pp.
It’s about Martin Luther teaching his barber, Master Peter, a simple way to pray.
You can read the whole book online here (“Preview the Book”).
Related: See Carl Trueman, “A Lesson from Peter the Barber,” Themelios 34 (2009): 3–5. Trueman’s article ends with this footnote (numbering added):
Martin Luther’s treatise on prayer can be found in the following works:
- Martin Luther, “To Peter Beskendorf,” in Luther: Letters of Spiritual Council (ed. and trans. Theodore G. Tappert; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1955), 124–30;
- idem, “A Simple Way to Pray,” in Luther’s Works (ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann; trans. Carl J. Schindler; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968), 43:187–209;
- idem, “Luther the Confessional Theologian: A Practical Way to Pray (1535),” in Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings (ed. William R. Russell and Timothy F. Lull; 2nd ed.; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005), 12–17.
I recently read all 144 pages of this graphic novel to my three-year-old daughter, and she loved it (even though some of it is over her head):
Susan K. Leigh. Luther: The Graphic Novel; Echoes of the Hammer. Illustrated by Dave Hill. St. Louis: Concordia, 2011.
This 32-page sample PDF illustrates the book’s format and style.
The story has five parts:
It’s published by Concordia Publishing House, the publisher of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, so I’m guessing they know something about Luther.
Related: My wife and I reviewed this book in 2008:
Paul L. Maier. Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed the World. Illustrated by Greg Copeland. Saint Louis: Concordia, 2004. 32 pp.
My family loves John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678). Charles Spurgeon read this classic over one hundred times. It’s a pity that many Christians today have not read it even once. Here are some versions we enjoy:
It’s excellent for young children because there is a picture on every page, and the text is simple and straightforward.*******
[email from me to Mike Bullmore on 6/7/2010]
Dear Mike,
I’m in the process of cataloging my print and electronic library, and I just entered this book in my database:
Bunyan, John. Pictorial Pilgrim’s Progress. Chicago: Moody, 1960.
I opened it up and reread what I wrote on the inside cover:
I read this very book to Michael after he relapsed. He loved to look at the pictures as I read and explained Bunyan’s outstanding allegory. Now Michael is at the glorious end of his difficult journey, and I look forward to seeing him again in the celestial city!
Andy
4/25/2002
A little background:
I’m the second of seven children . . . . In December 1998 (during my freshman year of college), my family was shocked to learn that my youngest brother Michael, who was three years old at the time, had cancer—Stage IV Neuroblastoma. [Read more…] about The Pilgrim’s Progress for Children (and Adults)
Last month Tony Reinke encouraged me to read E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (1952) to my daughter. Not only would my daughter love it, but I could learn a lot about how to write better.
That was good advice. My daughter Kara and I read it together in late April and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was her first “chapter” book without pictures on every page. I watched the 1973-film several times as a child, but I had never read the book (nor have I seen the 2006-film).
E. B. White knows how to write. Simple. Clear. Elegant. Magical.
That didn’t just happen. White worked tirelessly at it. He revised Charlotte’s Web many times until the wording was just right. (White contributes to the first of the “Six Useful Books on Writing” I list here.)
I love how the book ends. Someday I hope my friends can say this of me: “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”
Sinclair Ferguson is writing a series of children’s books called “Heroes of the Faith.” The first three books highlight heroes of the first centuries:
Click the images above for more information, including
I read these three books to my 2.75-year-old daughter last week, and she enjoyed them (and has kept asking me to read the story of Polycarp to her again). But she got restless while I read them because there are a lot of words on each page and the prose is more at the level of elementary-school children.
Each book ends with a timeline that lists heroes of the faith that Ferguson apparently plans to write books about: [Read more…] about Heroes of the First Centuries: Children’s Books by Sinclair Ferguson