I absolutely love this Story Bible. The authors do a great job of retelling some of the major stories from the Bible and tie them to more contemporary/current events to give the big message of the Bible. Each story has the scripture references as well, so it’s even better to have a Bible on hand when using it. The book itself is split up into two sections and 11 parts, with 6 parts falling under the Old Testament stories and 5 falling under the New Testament stories. The cover and illustrations are what drew me to this book. They were truly beautiful depictions of biblical times, and the vibrancy of the artwork was amazing. I would have loved to see a resource or companion guide for this as well. I think after each story or part, discussion questions would’ve made this book perfect. To be honest, that’s the one thing missing.

I started reading this Bible story book and knew immediately that it was going to be a little bit controversial. I'm going to tell you why I liked it!

The Just Love Story Bible has absolutely beautiful illustrations and great context and explanation for kids about the different sections  is focused on the message that God loves us and wants us to act justly and with kindness in the world. What that means is that the stories included are focused primarily on justice and love (it's in the title).

What that also means is that it leaves out stories that many of us expect to be in a children's Bible, such as the Adam and Eve story. If you go look at reviews of this Bible, you can see that people have big feelings about that. I want to point out two things. First, we are always leaving out stories in our children's Bibles. When I was growing up, none of my story Bibles had the Judges 19 Levite's concubine story. We weren't taught about the rape of Tamar in Sunday School. We didn't focus on thebook of Hosea. Writing a story Bible is about crafting a narrative about God, and this one uses Hebrew Bible stories such as the Exodus story, the daughters of Zelophehad, and the prophets (though not Hosea) to talk about love and justice. The New Testament stories in this Bible are mostly focused on the life and teaching of Jesus.

We are all always choosing which stories to tell our children. I personally like the stories that were included. No story Bible has every story that I want kids to learn, and that is okay! It's a good idea to have more than one Bible story book anyway. There is so much to learn about God. This book is focused on love and justice.

Second, what is the message that you hope to convey by teaching kids about Adam and Eve and the concept of sin? The Bible teaches that we are created in the image of God, and many of us call that "original blessing." The doctrine of original sin didn't exist until the 4th century. Our central belief about ourselves should not be that we are born sinful but that God loves and shapes our lives. I saw a review of this Bible that said that "without the sin stories, there is no point to the Bible." I could not disagree more. I find that to be a low view of scripture, which is a beautiful record of human relationships with God over many years. I would argue that this Bible does talk about sin, but, unlike what many of us are used to, it talks about the ways that we, as people, fail to be just and loving. It focuses less on individual actions and more about the world that we are creating that falls short of God's hopes and dreams for us. It talks about how we can participate in God's love and justice. 

This is a very worthwhile addition to a collection. I found the stories to be told in a way that I would love to use in our Sunday School classes, with frequent reminders of God's love, God's presence, and God's invitation to us.

I love this story Bible. I am a progressive UMC pastor and Bible and Theology resources for children and teens is a passion of mine.

What I loved

Diversity in skin tones
The illustrations were so great
The color theme carried through out the book was right one
It is organized well and by theme
It leans into some of the tougher Bible stories such as Shiphrah and Puah (one of my favorite Bible characters).

A must buy for folks that want to talk about the Bible with their children and do it in a way that leans into justice and redemption.

Thank you to NetGalley for this copy.