Gospel-Centered Books for Little Ones |

“Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled, ‘This could change your life.'” Helen Exley

Our reading nook in the playroom. I LOVE using these picture ledge shelves from IKEA as bookshelves. When books are displayed in this manner it is great since kids see the entire book they can find what they want to read very easily

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some of our favorite books (so far) that help point our kids towards Jesus listed below

Bibles

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name This one holds a special place in my heart. Bryan gave it to me for my 28th birthday, before we were married. Each night before leaving my place to go back to his, he would read a story to me. There were many nights I would get tears in my eyes because the words Sally uses are just that GOOD. I love it because it ties the old testament to the new- “every story whispers his name”. It is beautiful. Now, once I had a baby I didn’t realize how not practical it is during certain ages and lack of attention spans. But, I have no doubt that my boys will love it as they continue to get older. It is also a great one to use during Advent- there are tons of free Advent actives online you can find with free printables to use. It is still one of my favorites for sure!

Baby Caleb- I captioned this photo “I can’t help but wonder what these little hands will do one day”. It is so crazy how quickly time passes, and I continue to pray that those now bigger hands will be a blessing and be used to serve others.

When Bryan and I were engaged. We look so well-rested! (and we thought we were tired then from planning the wedding)

2. The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories This one also is special to me because it is the same Bible I used to read out of as a kid. I remember reading all of it when I was in 1st grade and being SO excited because I read “all of the Bible” not realizing that since it’s a children’s bible it doesn’t have all of the Scriptures. Nevertheless, this one holds our boys attention spans well as there are few words on each page and several colorful inviting pictures that go with each story. Caleb loves to act out David and Goliath. David loves to look for Mary (she’s his favorite) and baby Jesus. And they both love to pretend they are Jonah and get thrown into the water.

3. Read And Learn Bible This one is great because it has more stories than the one above, and is usually a little more accurate to Scripture or has a little more detail. In my opinion, it is a great one for in between the first two as far as attention span goes.

4. The Big Picture Story Bible This one is GORGEOUS. I love the pictures in it as so do our boys. It is also fairly detailed but easier for them to stay with us when we read as there are few words on each page and many pictures (so it is pretty thick, and heavy).

5. The Rhyme Bible StorybookThis is incredibly clever! Every story rhymes. It is a great one for littles because it is more like a board book in nature and the stories are much shorter.

6. Read ‘n’ See DVD Bible We just got this one recently and although the DVD that comes with it is pretty cheesy (it is a dramatic reading of the text while there are still pictures shown that go with the book) my boys actually LOVE it. They have asked to watch it several times the last week. There is a song after each story as well. So I’m calling it a win.

C and D reading their Bibles (after fighting over which one to read)

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” Emilie Buchwald

Other favorites:

Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers: The Gospel While this book is probably more appropriate for a 5 year old or older, we have read it (adapting some of the words) to our kids (2 and 3) and they really like Gracie and the story she shares. It is a great way to describe the Gospel to little kids. I highly recommend it! I want to get the rest of the series as well.

The ABC Bible Verse Book One of my FAVORITES! First, it is a board book (can I get a hallelujah from Moms of little ones?!). Second, it has a verse that stars with each letter, A: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”, etc. It is easy to begin to memorize the Scripture that goes with each letter, the illustrations are great and thought provoking. The one for the letter K (“Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies”) is a picture of a broken window and 3 boys holding a bat and gloves and 2 of the 3 running away, but one remaining behind and talking to the grow-up. Caleb (even before he was 3) always asks about why the other boys run away, and we dialogue about what it means to tell the truth. It is a great book, and I am praying that planting seeds of truth in our boys at a young age will come back to them years down the road. (Isaiah 55)

The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers (Little Blessings) Our copy of this is so well-loved the cover has fallen off. We read the “devo” as the boys affectionately call it every night before bed. Though the scriptures are sometimes taken out of context, they are simple short sweet stories, a prayer and a verse. We like having a pattern of doing a devotional that is actually doable as a part of our bedtime routine.

The King’s Invitation This book, written by one of my former students, Katie Hoppman Simpson, is AMAZING. It is such a beautiful story that gets to the heart of the Gospel- that God wants simply YOU, not your intellect, your skills, or service. It follows a little boy on his way to see the King and he encounters several people who have excuses for not taking the journey with him. The question posed is not do you know ABOUT Jesus, but do you KNOW Him? Now that our boys are a little older, they have been asking to read this one often.

My ABC of God Loves Me This one is also wonderful in that it is a board book and it goes through the ABCs like my favorite scripture one mentioned above. This one lists a character attribute of God for each letter. It is precious. And David loves the pictures (especially the ones where they are playing basketball).

Caleb’s silly smile. I love this boy so much.

Other media well-loved at our house:

Praise Baby: Forever Reign I LOVE these. We have several of them, and for the last few years, our mornings have started with watching “Praise Praise”. They are about 30 minutes long, play sweet worship songs and just have random pictures of things that are captivating to the eye for little ones (like black and white and colorful things, animals, people, babies, visual effects, etc). Think Christian version of Baby Einstein. I love being able to start our day with praise, but also have the boys occupied while I get their breakfast ready.

Seeds Family Worship We love Seeds Family! They are songs full of scripture. You can also find their stuff on Spotify.

A child who reads will be an adult who — We know reading is so powerful because it shapes how we think. And how we think shapes what we believe, and what we believe shapes what we do. It is never too early to start reading to your kids!

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