Many thanks to Shepherd Press for providing this product/product information for review. Opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive the product in exchange for this review and post.

A few years ago, when it came out, I reviewed the Jesus Storybook Bible.  I loved the idea of it, but felt that it wasn’t as well-executed as it could be, and ended up marking out a lot of the text in ours and rewording it.  God With Us: A Journey Home is based on a very similar principle — and has a much stronger execution.

The Framing

This is essentially a children’s storybook Bible, but it’s not written quite like the average Story Bible.  The biblical stories are framed by narrations from a couple of unnamed angels, and the whole thing is in the second person.  These narrators are, for the most part, pretty unobtrusive, but it is slightly weird.

Most notably, it feels strange having a story Bible in second person.  But also, the nature of this framework means that in the background are some questions about the exact heavenly timeline — for instance, when did the angels fall?  This probably isn’t a problem, because young children likely won’t even notice, and if older children pick up on it, it’s a good opportunity for discussing those tougher questions.  But it’s the most pervasively odd thing about the book, and for a few potential readers it might be a deal-breaker.

With the exception of a few minor quirks (which I’ll describe later in case they’re concerns for anyone), that’s really the only thing that stands out as a negative, though.  I was, overall, pretty impressed with this book.

The Flow

The common thread throughout this book is Jesus — but not only Jesus, Jesus specifically as Immanuel, “God with us.”  The entire storyline is about relationship and “home,” and how relationship with God is the home we all intuitively seek, and the course of biblical history as relates to the breaking and then restoration of that relationship.

The wording is beautiful, not clunky.  And although the general sentence structure and syntax is written to be kid-friendly, I appreciate that it doesn’t shy away from “hard” words.  There’s opportunity for children to learn important biblical language like “dwell” and “holiness” and “sacrifice.”

In fact, many of the Old Testament chapters open up with references to New Testament Scriptures that interpret and shed light on them, and some of the chapters about the Gospels likewise cite the epistles.  It’s just very interwoven in a way that makes clear that Old Testament and New Testament are interdependent parts of a whole.

The Images

The artwork throughout God With Us is beautiful.  I’ve included photos of a few selections, because it’s a little hard to explain, but there are several different types of artwork here that, nevertheless, integrate pretty much seamlessly.  Some of these are lovely enough to stand alone.  (Shepherd Press, Cassandra Clark, any chance some of these pieces will be available for sale as prints?)

There’s good attention to detail here.  Middle Eastern characters look Middle Eastern.  The fruit in the Garden is not an apple.  The representative churches in the New Testament section span different styles of architecture representing different cultures, and the few modern people in the book include diversity.

For those who are wondering, yes, there are images of God.  They aren’t flippant or cartoony, but there are images of Jesus and there are a few Old Testament images some readers might be bothered by, such as the burning bush and the angel that wrestled with Joseph.

Quirks

I’m going to get really petty here just to ensure I’ve covered everything that anyone might consider problematic, but I consider all of these quirks, not problems.

The one thing that really “caught” me was that the story opened up in Genesis by saying, “we stood at the edge of eternity that third day,” and this really threw me for a loop.  I was confused about why it was specifying the third day and not the first (with the beginning of Creation) or the sixth (when Man was created).  I think it’s because it parallels the “third day” in the New Testament, but this did stand out enough to cause some initial confusion.

It’s also worth noting that there are some artistic liberties taken in terms of dialog.  I tend to be pretty particular about this, and I felt it all stayed pretty true to the original intent.  That is, that it falls within the umbrella of what I’d consider valid in a translation, without any loss or perversion of meaning as a result of “dumbing things down.”

(Did I mention I was pretty impressed with the execution of this book?)

The only other thing I noticed that might be bothersome to certain readers is that the first chapter, describing the fellowship of Adam and Eve with God, reads:

If you imagine the best day ever — a weekend trip to the city or the country with your mom and dad together, loving each other and loving you…

This seems to presume the child reading the story lives with both Mom and Dad, which may not be true of everyone.  On the other hand, even those children who don’t live with both parents may imagine this ideal.  It’s worth being aware of, though, in case this should be an upsetting assumption for the particular child or children you have in mind.

Summary: It’s Excellent

Despite the few quirks I’ve described, God With Us really is, overall, beautifully and reverently and skillfully done.  It may be geared to a slightly older age range than the Jesus Storybook Bible, but I would read this to my preschoolers, as well.  It doesn’t shy away from the “bad stuff” — as it shouldn’t, because then the story is skewed — but it does present them tastefully.

The net result is something that truly does convey the sense that “there be dragons,” but there’s also a dragon-slayer.  It captures the “epic-ness” of the biblical story; it doesn’t cheapen it.

Learn more about it and buy it at Shepherd Press.

Win It!

Shepherd Press is also providing one of you with a copy of God With Us (once the final, hardback copy is available).  (US only; sorry.)  If you’re reading this in a feed readers, you might need to click through to see the giveaway form.

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