Book Description

The Bible is rich in stories that teach, fascinate, and encourage young people. The Children's Illustrated Bible retells these stories with clear simple language and colorful artwork on each page or spread. The young child will move from reading to discovery. Originally published as a 10-volume paperback series which was published in English and translated in several languages, including Russian, the books have been brought together into one volume. "Eve MacMaster remembers when her children were young she dug out the Biblical storybook she'd loved as a child and got quite a surprise. "MacMaster is the pastor of Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Gainesville. Back in the 1970s she was a young mom with three children who'd already taken a few courses from seminary. But the old storybook presented an unexpected challenge. "'It was fun to read, as I remembered, but I had all kinds of theological problems with it. It added things that weren't there, it didn't deal with the prophets, and it highlighted the war and violence, the sort of thrilling action stories in the first part of the Old Testament, and it was kind of a letdown to get to Jesus who just told stories,' she says. "So, she went to Mennonite publisher, Herald Press, and recommended that someone should do a 'really good Bible storybook.' "'And they said, 'that's a good idea, why don't you do it'," she recalls. "And that's exactly what she did. Over seven years, from 1980 to 1987, she put together The Story Bible Series a 10-part illustrated paperback series that offered hundreds of Bible stories that were sprinkled with black and white line drawings. "Now, two decades later, major publisher Dalmatian Press, along with Herald Press, is putting out a single-volume, full-color, picture-filled Children's Illustrated Bible that's adapted those stories MacMaster first tested on her own children. "'This book will get out to a mass market, and that's very exciting,'" she says.