Bedtime is one of the most precious times we have with our children each day. It’s an opportunity to slow down and focus all our attention on connecting heart-to-heart with our kids.
Cuddles and bedtime stories create beautiful memories. It’s also a time to help our kids connect their hearts to their Heavenly Father.
I was excited to get my hands on a copy of Julie Lavender’s new book: Children’s Bible Stories for Bedtime: To Grow in Faith & Love. It has biblically accurate stories from the Old and New Testaments along with classic illustrations by Shahar Kober.
About the Book:
- It’s 320 pages long.
- There are 34 stories from the Old Testament and 18 stories from the New Testament.
- There’s an illustration for each story.
- At the end of every section, you’ll find brief reflections and prayers.
What I Loved:
I appreciated the attention to biblical accuracy that is not always present in Bible stories for kids.
It was the simple things, like pointing out how Noah sent a raven first, then a dove to check for land. Throughout the book, the stories dove deeper into scripture than other children’s versions I have read. Each story also includes the appropriate scripture references.
Julie writes in a relatable way for kids, which kept my young readers engaged. I personally liked the color palette of the book, though my 8-year-old daughter said she preferred brightly colored pictures better. The illustrations were serene and perfect for bedtime.
Other Thoughts:
The stories are definitely longer than many Bible stories for ages 4-8, and the text is not broken up by pictures; each story includes only one illustration. My 6-year-old son got a bit squirrely at times, but my 8-year-old daughter really enjoyed it.
Overall, the book is wonderful. It’s filled with high quality stories and illustrations and is a great bedtime companion for your family. Grab a copy today!
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this review. All opinions are my own.
About the Author:
Julie Lavender is an author, journalist, and former homeschooling mom of 25 years. She holds a master’s degree in early childhood education. She is the author of 365 Ways to Love Your Child: Turning Little Moments into Lasting Memories and her work has been featured in Guideposts. She enjoys baking, traveling, and spending time with her family.
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This is beautiful! I have been looking for something like this for my little niece, Harper
I read a Bible devotional book with my son every night right before he goes to sleep.
Bible stories have always been an important part of my kids daily routine.
My daughter and grandson ready overnight before they go to bed. They love reading the bible.
This looks great! We do family devotions before bed together
What a wonderful book!
I like kid’s Bible stories to be short, accurate and age appropriate.
what a great copy!! i always look for a chance to grab a bible story book that is biblical accurate
Me too Karyn!
Hugs and i love yous.
This looks great! We love finding new bible stories esp for this age range
You had me at “biblical accuracy”!
Our bedtime routine is reading, “story of our day”, singing a few songs, and prayer. It can be relatively fast or take awhile, which is nice since our schedule varies.
The story of the day I picked up from a blog post, but my husband put his spin on it, so now it consists of questions. Some are related to what we did that day, but then others are silly like “did you eat a house today?”.
How fun! Love that idea Rachel!
Our nightly routine includes prayer and a book or devotion. I am also interested in more accurate Bible stories for children. Looks like a wonderful book!
This sounds like perfect bedtime reading. Thank you for the opportunity to win a copy.
We say prayers and read some books at bedtime.
Our routine is reading a story and saying a prayer every night before bedtime.
Bedtime routine with my special needs little human involves play to reconnect with him before sleep (something HE wants to do together for a few minutes- could be anything. Sometimes it’s a toss game, Rock Paper Scissors, hot wheels races, answering questions from a thoughtful deck, coloring together, etc), read together, say a bedtime ritual “I am safe. I am loved. I can rest.” Then we pray and sing a song or two together.
I love that you take the time to reconnect and end the day with beautiful memories! Thanks for sharing!