5-Minute Nighttime Bible Stories

The 5-Minute Nighttime Bible Stories retold by Charlotte Thoroe and illustrated by Gil Guile makes a good choice for bedtime reading with young children. Published by Tommy Nelson, the appealing artwork catches the attention of little ones, while the large font encourages elementary school child to read along and learn new words. In addition, I appreciate the capitalization of pronouns referring to God.

In the Genesis opening, for example:

“God spoke and whatever He said, it happened.”

The next page invites children to count the animals shown on that page as does the story of Noah. The cheery illustrations and interactive questions help to hold a squirmy child’s attention. Sometimes, though, that same question might cause confusion. For example, posing it with the story of Jesus’ birth could give the impression of an exact animal head count around the manger.

Another type of interaction occurs with a prayer such as the one relating well to the last page of the Noah story:

“Dear God, thank You for all of the wonderful animals and for always keeping Your promises.”

A sidebar with the story of Moses and Pharoah asks what happened to Aaron’s staff, while the next page lists the plagues with a prayer thanking God for taking care of His people.

All Bible storybooks don’t include the Ten Commandments, so I was glad to see this one did in child-friendly language. However, I wish this and other Bible storybooks would omit David’s killing Goliath and talk instead about his tending sheep or writing many of the poems known as Psalms.

In the New Testament stories, the interactive question: “How many disciples did Jesus have?” probably refers to the twelve men He had just chosen as apostles who would be sent out in His name, whereas the disciples or followers of that time and now are countless.

My favorite story in the book will surely be the favorite of young readers, too, as they read “Jesus Loves Children.” At the end of that story, bold letters acclaim, “Jesus always had time for children.” Amen!

Finally, the back matter of this sturdy book, which I kindly received for my honest-as-always review, gives children easy-access to find and memorize:

The Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)
The Ten Commandments (included earlier too)
Psalm 23 (with a word about David and the Psalms)
Books of the Bible (Old Testament and New)
Song About Jesus (“Jesus Loves Me”)

Mary Sayler, poet, writer, and reviewer, ©2016

5-Minute Nighttime Bible Stories, padded hardback



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