The Big Picture Story Bible: A Review
The Bible is God’s story and it begins with these big words: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” — The Big Picture Story Bible
The Big Picture Story Bible (by David Helm, illustrated by Gail Schoonmaker) is the story of the Bible retold in simpler language for children, not unlike The Jesus Story Book Bible, about which I’ve also written a review. The Big Picture Story Bible is written for a younger age than The Jesus Story Book Bible.
A friend recommended The Big Picture Story Bible while were discussing the appropriateness of images of Jesus in children’s book. He commented one of his other children’s book depicted every character, even God’s enemies, as smiling and ‘happy to defy God’. He mentioned to me that The Big Picture Story Bible illustrated emotion more realistically by showing a wider range of expressions in characters, including sadness and anger.
Grandpa and Grandma bought the book for Charlie’s first birthday. One of the first things one notices about the book is the artwork: the book’s style is simple with superbly saturated colours. The pictures convey a sense of wonder and show the expanse of the described scenes. Often the pictures show additional details the text of the story omits.
The acknowledgements section thanks Graeme Goldsworthy ‘who first helped [the authors] grasp the Bible along the lines of “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.”’ The book certainly is true to form and references this motif several times. The story narrative does a good job connecting the individual stories with the meta-story of redemption. Our child is shown that sin is rebellion, and God is working to redeem to himself a people out of rebellious sinful humanity. Old Testament stories are not told as morality tales, but in connexion to Jesus and the overarching story of the Bible.
It is refreshing to see books of this calibre: simplifying the story of the Bible for children and yet not compromising the message. These books encourage our covenant children to think of the whole history and covenant of redemption.
