* The Jesus Book *

* Review done by Melissa J

The Jesus Book by Stephen Elkins
Illustrated by Claudine Gevry
Price $16.99

The Jesus Book by Stephen Elkins, put out by Thomas Nelson Publishers is a delightful and colorful way to introduce children to Jesus. The pages are shiny and colorful. The stories short and to the point, keeping a child's interest, while at the same time, filling them with information about the subject matter. As my husband commented when he overheard me reading the first story, "Wow, short story that packs a punch and doesn't leave anything out!"

The book cover is padded a bit and is every bit as colorful and attractive as each illustrated page. To catch a glimpse of these pages, check out the flip book that Thomas Nelson has made available.

Sections of the book include:

~ Who Jesus Is. Some of the stories in this section include, but are not limited too:

• "The prophets said Jesus was the Promised One", "Peter said Jesus was the Christ", John the disciple said Jesus is the Word", and "Jesus said He is . . . "
  

~ What Jesus Did. Some of the stories include:

• "He Healed Many", He raised the Dead", "He forgave sin", and "He went to the Cross".
  

~ What Jesus Taught. Some of the stories include:

• "He taught using Parables", He Taught the Golden Rule", "He taught us He Loves Us."
  

~ When it Happened. In this section, a timeline is provided, giving children a visual tool for understanding in what order Biblical events took place.

~ Where it Happened. This section includes simple but accurate maps for children to look at and reference the Biblical stories.

~ Why it Happened. I really appreciated it when I got to this section. It begins with, "Why did Mary Name her Baby Jesus?" and ends with, "Why did Jesus Die on the Cross?"

~ How it Happened. This too is a section, that without, the book would have been incomplete, How grateful I am, as a mom, that the author put this section into the book, trying the previous sections together into life application with stories such as, "How do we Receive Eternal Life" and "How Does Jesus want us to Live?"


The book itself, is high enough quality for me to have spent the money on, to add to my daughter's library. However it has an added feature that is the icing on the cake - - a CD with 30 children's songs. Each song is set in a musical arrangement that a child will enjoy and my daughter has loved listening to it, even at 21 months of age.


The Jesus Book is available at Amazon.com. You can also check out other reviews at the Thomas Nelson Review page.