Our Quest for the Best Bible for Preschoolers

Are you looking for the best bible for preschoolers?  I was…and spent last summer on a mission to find it.  hehe  I was determined to find a bible that came in both English and Spanish, and that would be perfect to use in our preschool curriculum.  At first it was overwhelming, seeing an entire wall stocked with “Children’s Bibles,” but as I started looking through I was less than impressed by many.

 What was our criteria for the best bible for preschoolers?

1) number of stories included; I wanted more than Adam and Eve and Noah’s Ark.  We needed a good overview of the bible with plenty of stories included from both the Old and New Testament.

2) quality of illustrations; This age group is very visual, so illustrations are very important.  I was looking for appealing, but not babyish pictures.  I don’t want their first impression of Jesus to be with buggy eyes and crazy hair!  (I won’t point out the series, but if you’ve ever shopped for children’s bibles you know what I mean.)

3) age appropriate language; I was looking for a bible that actually told the story at a level toddlers could understand, but without sacrificing the storyline.  Tricky, I know, but very important to me.

4) text size; I wanted something that would appeal to young readers.  To see a page full of tiny text is overwhelming when you are first learning to read.  However, with larger text appropriately spaced, young children can begin to pick out words much easier.

5) comes in Spanish; I know, this last one is tough.  However, it is very important for our Spanglish family to have an English and Spanish version as we split our bible time between the two languages.

After hours of clicking through online reviews, then sitting on the floor of the Christian bookstore scrutinizing the finalists…I found one that I really love!

What is so special about this bible?

• There are more than 200 bible stories.
• Every story has one or two delightful illustrations.
• The stories chosen give a good chronological overview of the bible in simple, yet accurate language that preschoolers can understand.
• The text is large and clear, making a nice transition for preschoolers who are becoming interested in recognizing letters and sounding out words.
• A little box at the end of each story includes comments or questions to help preschoolers make real-life connections.
• You can buy it on DVD! The stories are not presented in order, but there are four volumes each containing multiple stories using the same illustrations and language from the bible.

Note:  There are many versions of this bible now available.  I would NOT recommend the toddler version for our purposes, as it only has half of the stories along with parent activities integrated after each story. Also, they have Christmas and Easter specials which are basically just the stories extracted from the bible and DVD and packaged together in a holiday theme. (I would save your money since it would just be repetitious, but it would be a great gift idea.)

I would personally recommend these versions (These are affiliate links, which means if you purchase through them we may get a small percentage at NO cost to you.  Read our full disclosure here.  Thanks so much for supporting Spanglish Schoolhouse!):

Read and Share Bible in English

Read and Share Bible in Spanish

Read and Share DVDs

For those of you who are looking for a great bilingual bible, I must recommend the Jesus Storybook Bible.  In fact, we love it so much, we are currently writing a full English and Spanish bible curriculum to go with it.  Leave me a comment if you would like to know when it is ready for action. 😉

Looking for something to do with that bible?  Check out our family’s favorite bible study that works from three-nagers thru teenagers.  hehe