Toddler's Bible by V Gilbert Beers

The Toddler's Bible. V. Gilbert Beers. 1992/2012. The 2012 edition is illustrated by Claudine Gevry. The 1992 edition is illustrated by Carole Boerke. David C. Cook. 432 pages.


The Toddler's Bible features 101 Bible stories retold for the very youngest audience. The stories are incredibly simplified and not exactly sophisticated--in terms of theology and doctrine. There are other books for preschoolers and early elementary readers that do a better job of that--such as The Big Picture Story Bible by David Helm; it is published by Crossway. I'd recommend that one even to adults. Read it cover to cover, and within a VERY short period of time, you'll know the story of the Bible, the gospel.

But what The Toddler's Bible lacks in complexity, it perhaps makes up for by diversity. It has a handful of Elijah stories, an Elisha story, a Job story, a story about Nehemiah, a story about Joash. These are stories that don't often get included! This one covers Bible stories other books just don't. Then again, some important events are skipped over completely. And some of what gets presented is incomplete. So how well is the Bible represented?

• 52 stories come from the Old Testament.
• 16 stories come from Genesis.
• 18 stories cover Exodus to Ruth (Israel's Deliverance from Egypt, the Desert Years, the Settling in the Promised Land)
• 18 stories cover 1 Samuel to Malachi (Israel's Establishment as A Kingdom, the Divided Kingdoms of Judah and Israel, the Exile Period, the Restoration of a Remnant)
• 49 stories come from the New Testament
• 39 stories come from the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)
• 10 stories come from other New Testament books (Acts, letters or epistles, etc.)