The Jesus Storybook Bible

There is a new story Bible available called The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name. The author, Sally Lloyd-Jones, is a member of Tim Keller's church. This book does what we all need to do more often: teach the Bible as one big story about Jesus. Sally doesn't fall into the moralism that ruins most children's story Bibles. It is a distinctively Christ-centered book for kids.

I've ordered a copy and will be trying it at church with the preschool classes. This book would also serve well for bedtime reading or family worship. Sunday school teachers could use this for early arrivals with their other reading books.

There is a great interview with Sally at Dan Cruver's blog eucatastrophe.

See also:
A sample of the book.
Sally's website and blog.
A review of the book by Kathy Keller.
The illustrators blog.

Here is a sample of the interview. Sally says:

As a child, I thought the Bible was packed with rules you had to keep (or God wouldn’t love you) and heroes setting examples you had to follow (or God wouldn’t love you). I thought, in short, that the Bible was all about me and what I should (or shouldn’t) be doing. Until I read a Story.

It’s the Story running like a golden stream underneath all the other stories in the Bible: the story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. Suddenly, I realized the Bible wasn’t about me and what I should be doing at all. It was about God and what he had done. And it changed everything.

So, throughout the mapping out of the book and writing the stories, I was resolute in my determination to avoid even a whiff of moralizing in terms of applying the stories. The absolute last thing I ever wanted to ask a child was: “And what can we learn from David about how God wants us to behave?” The story isn’t there to be an example for us to follow. If that were the point, Jesus would never needed to have come. We could have saved ourselves.