The Garden Children’s Bible is a fun way to teach children God’s Word. Lenny the Lion and his best friend, Lucy the Lamb, are the adorable main characters from a Christian cartoon series who receive messages from The Boss (God) (The Boss) and are sent on exciting adventures. These garden friends help readers understand Bible passages and lessons.

Using colorful comic strip style illustrations and Christian cartoon characters Lenny and Lucy, this Bible keeps children entertained, engaged, and edified.

The Bible contains activity pages, memory verses, character descriptions, prayers, miracles, promises, names of God, and other learning tools. And the International Children’s Bible (ICB) translation (not a storybook or paraphrased Bible) simplifies the text for young readers to better understand. And Lenny and Lucy help children learn sound Biblical truths and lessons.

The two-column design, chapter/verse numbers, presentation page, and an attached satin marker offers a similar appearance to traditional Bibles, but with an appealing, vibrant twist that gets children’s attention. What a wonderful, fun, and inspiring way for our kids to become more acquainted with God’s Word! This makes a wonderful addition to any child’s library.

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people who are like these children.”
Matthew 19:14 (ICB)

#CoverLoverBookReview received a complimentary copy of this book as a member of the Bible Gateway Blogger Grid. Opinions are 100% mine.
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With a modern, sparkly look and interesting added information and study guides, this makes for a lovely gift especially for girls ages ten and over.

The thing which caught my attention on this Bible was the sequin cover...something my own daughters' find amazing. Although it was a bit stiff at first—thanks to the newness—the sequins soon work wonderfully and expose a lovely heart underneath. They are well attached, and it appears, they will hold well for a relatively long time. Of course, however, this is not the main purpose of the Bible.

If someone is interested in lovely illustrations, this is not the Bible to choose. Rather, it adds interesting and well illustrated study aides, which not only help on the fact end but also give the reader tips on their life as a Christian and how to imply, in a very general sense, that what the Bible teaches in their daily lives. There are pages where the reader can make their own notes: favorite Bible verses, etc. Other pages give chance for reflection. Each one is written at a level the intended age group can understand and relate to, and yet, it never speaks down to the reader.

Unlike many Bibles, there are several indexes and search helps before Genesis begins. In addition to the Table of Contents, a quick list of where to find verses relating to certain topics (hope, death, etc) is given, making it clear that this is a Bible to seek guidance and help. There is also a several page illustration of a basic Bible time line, which helps to show what happened when. At the end, among other things, there are also several maps and layouts of geographical areas to help to reader visualize the area where some of the more important occurrences take place.

The pages themselves are thin but relatively durable. The ICB version is created with the age group in mind, and the 'important' and well-known verses are highlighted as well. There isn't any room on the edges or in the text for notes, but this isn't unusual.

My own daughter found this to be a delightful Bible and enjoys the layout as well as the helps included.

I received a complimentary copy from booklook bloggers, and my daughters and I both found it to be so lovely that I wanted to leave my honest thoughts. ( )

I must admit, I liked the cover of this Bible (the 'Frost Bible') decorated with snow and sparkles and that was one of the reasons I requested this book in order to review it. I am not an advocate of choosing a Bible because of its cover, and am generally uncomfortable with Bibles that are aimed towards a specific gender (mainly because of their study notes that may run into danger of eisegesis by trying to direct the thinking into a more egotistical interpretation of Scripture ), but this one, other than its being appealing to girls by its cover (as I am proof of) is otherwise a fairly basic Bible.

My motives in requesting this Bible were not wholly material in nature, I had never heard of the International Children's Translation before and was very curious about it. It seems to be a rather literal translation overall. They explain in the preface about some liberties they took in translation, such as clarifying ancient customs, changing Rhetorical questions to statements, "showing the implied meaning, as in this example: 'No one is equal to our God,' instead of 'Who is equal to our God?'", editing figures of speech, idiomatic expressions ('he rested with his fathers' is changed to, 'he died')…etc. Some of the writing style reminds me of the Dick and Jane books, short sentences with a lot of periods for punctuation. But it still reads quite well. Here's a sample from Genesis 42: 1-4: "Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt. So he said to his sons, 'Why are you just sitting here looking at one another? I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy grain for us to eat. Then we will live and not die.' So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with them. Jacob was afraid that something terrible might happen to Benjamin."

The translation appears to be quite good to me, and very understandable for kids. One of the passages I always go to in Bibles to help give me an idea of the general literalness of the translation is Romans 9:13, and this translation doesn't try to soften it which is a good sign: "As the Scripture says, "I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau."

Here are some other excerpts to help give you more of an idea of how this translation reads:

Rom 8:28, 30. "We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. They are the people God called, because that was his plan…God planned for them to be like his Son. And those he planned to be like his Son, he also called. And those he called, he also made right with him. And those he made right, he also glorified."

2 Tim. 3: 14-17: "But you should continue following the teachings that you learned. You know that these teachings are true. And you know you can trust those who taught you. You have known the Holy Scriptures since you were a child. The Scriptures are able to make you wise. And that wisdom leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching and for showing people what is wrong in their lives. It is useful for correcting faults and teaching how to live right. Using the Scriptures, the person who serves God will be ready and will have everything he needs to do every good work."

The Bible has some fancy pages (with snowflakes of course) scattered throughout with little tidbits on topics like, "How Do I Pray?" , "How Do I know Jesus Better?" and "Knowing Jesus Better". For the most part those sections seem okay, though I might have an issue with some of the memory verses they suggest like Jeremiah 29:11 which is usually taken out of context and applied specifically to Christians when in actuality it was a promise to the physical descendants of Jacob, not necessarily to present day Gentile Christians. I just had to mention that.

Overall, I thought this translation was pretty good.

The FTC guidelines require me to state that I received this Bible for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review (my review did not have to be favorable). Many thanks to the BookLook blogger program.
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This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/2011/04/big-red-holy-bible-translation-childr...

This full version of both the Old and New Testaments has been translated in a clear prose that children can easily understand. Some of the features:

* Children's dictionary/index, with more than 200 entries, explains difficult words and phrases
* Simplified footnotes explain Bible name, customs, and phrases
* Colorful maps show key cities and lands

Designed for Grades 3 and above, there are groups of insets containing beautiful illustrations of key Biblical characters and scenes, and the language IS much easier for younger readers.

Bebe Boy James recently started wanting to read the Bible on his own, and this is the Bible he takes down for his Bible reading. He doesn't take it to church or to his youth group, as they use a different version, but he DOES sometimes use this one to help him better understand what his memory verses mean. In this translation, John 3:16 reads: "For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. God gave his Son so that whosoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life."

If you have a reader who is up to "chapter books" (as Bebe Boy James calls them) or middle readers, this would be a good Bible to have on hand for them to read for themselves. ( )