• With the
popularity of fairy tales and Disney animation, and especially with the new
release of Disney’s live action Beauty and the Beast on March 17, Zonderkidz
wanted to publish a storybook Bible and full -text Bible (Holy Bible offered in
hardcover, and pink leathersoft editions) that would resonate with children and
families who loved those types of movies, and loved reading a great story.
• The art will
captivate Disney lovers with similar looking characters and color palettes
• Zonderkidz wanted
to capture fans of this genre, but introduce young children to the word of God,
and introduce them to the great characters of the Bible. It’s important to note
that this brand serves to resound the theme that the Bible is NOT a fairy tale,
but every great Bible story happened once upon a time. The Bible is the
ultimate Happily Ever After story!
• What Christian
parent doesn’t want to tie in Bible learning fun with what their kids already
love, but also have the opportunity to teach them that the real heroes and
stories of our faith come straight from God’s Word.
The Storybook Bible utilizes
even more of the captivating art style and beautiful narrative to tell the
major stories of the Bible (http://www.zondervan.com/once-upon-a-time-storybook-bible) , and the Holy Bible (http://www.zondervan.com/nirv-once-upon-a-time-holy-bible-hardcover & (http://www.zondervan.com/nirv-once-upon-a-time-holy-bible-imitation-leather) includes the full-text of the bestselling New
International Reader’s Version (NIrV) translation, and highlights 6 great
stories of the Bible in full-color tip-in pages. (There will be 6
stories, and each story is told on 4 illustrated pages.)
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My Review:
The Storybook Bible is a good size book at 9" x 11", so it is quite big. It contains 33 stories and 144 pages. The stories are only four pages long so they are perfect for children with short attention spans. And, with much of those four pages covered in pictures, little ones' eyes will be occupied looking while the story is read.
The pictures are also very neat! They definitely remind me of a fairy tale story with the illustrations... especially the facial features of the characters. Even the pages with only words are decorated nicely with different borders to brighten up the page.
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The Once Upon a Time Holy Bible is illustrated the same as the Storybook Bible. It IS a 1144 page Bible with a handful of colorful pages throughout with shortened versions of Bible stories on them.
While it is a very nice Bible, I think the shortened stories are little too short. There are some fun, interesting, parts of the stories that my children were disappointed were not included.
Even though the stories are a bit short, the Once Upon a Time Holy Bible would make a wonderful first Bible for a young child. It has enough colorful stories to intrigue them, yet is still a Bible that they can follow along in and learn from.
The covers of both the Storybook Bible and Holy Bible say "The Bible is not a fairy tale. Every great story happened once upon a time." What a great way to start little ones off with that reminder! Most Bible stories sound like other fairy tales that children hear, but they need to understand that these stories truly happened and that they happened for a very important reason.
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The Once Upon a Time Storybook Bible is available at Sam's Club or where books are sold for $16.99. The Once Upon a Time Holy Bible is available where books are sold for $24.99. They would make great gifts for Easter baskets!
