The Story for Children, a Storybook Bible Deluxe Edition

As long as I can remember, to me, Max Lucado has been a trusted name and source in Bible study and devotional resources. When I stumbled across [b:The Story for Little Ones 14391411 The Story for Little Ones Max Lucado http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1350509863s/14391411.jpg 20033376] I could not be more pleased. Little Ones encompasses ages 2-5 while [b:The Story for Children: A Storybook Bible 11549716 The Story for Children A Storybook Bible Max Lucado http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328846456s/11549716.jpg 16489599] I believe is meant for ages 4-8. This is part of a large campaign that includes all ages. The Story for Children (early elementary), The Story for Kids (later elementary), The Story Teen Edition, God's Story Youth Edition, and then the adult books in The Story, God's Story Your Story, and a few more. I think from what I have seen (my copy of The Story for Little Ones, God's Story Your Story (reviewed) and a few digital ARCs of the other youngest versions) I'm excited. I'm really excited that everyone and every age can be touched. That and I adore Max Lucado.Knowing that I love The Story for Little Ones I was super eager to experience The Story for Children. Little Ones has simple gorgeous illusrations of more-than stick figure quality while The Story for Children are more life-like and complex illustrations, perfect for stepping it up a notch for the reader and their imagination. When I got my hands on the Deluxe Edition I did not know what to expect. I had seen some of the illustrations online, but my Little Ones is a big (thin) book 8.8x11” and this The Story for Children in my hands is 6.6x8.1”. It is the same size as [b:The Jesus Storybook Bible 165068 The Jesus Storybook Bible Every Story Whispers His Name Sally Lloyd-Jones http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344715720s/165068.jpg 159378], [b:The Sweetest Story Bible 7716480 The Sweetest Story Bible Sweet Thoughts and Sweet Words for Little Girls Diane Stortz http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344675279s/7716480.jpg 10451244] and [b:The Rhyme Bible Storybook 13700689 The Rhyme Bible Storybook Linda J. Sattgast http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344713178s/13700689.jpg 1139835]. The Deluxe Edition is in an attractive box sleeve slipcover with illustrations on it. It includes the Bible book and a sleeve with three audio CDs that contain the entire book narrated by Max Lucado. Two CDs for the Old Testament and one CD for the New Testament. [insert audio thoughts here] In my research it appears that perhaps the original The Story for Children: A Storybook Bible was similar to what I expected in an 8.8x11” size. There also seems to be a NIrV full Bible text The Story for Children, I do not know what it entails in it's 2,000+ pages. The book cover in the Deluxe Edition appears to be a cropped image of the original removing the blue sky and all words just leaving the image of Jesus surrounded by children. It's beautiful. While there is no ribbon marker this hardbound edition is beautiful. The illustrations are so full of life and emotions (the people and animals I mean specifically). There are 48 stories here (to add to the 31 we had in The Story for Little Ones) that show the Bible as the “big picture” of God. I cannot quite place what these illustrations remind me of, but they are full and available as a springboard for the imagination to bring the Bible and it's words off the page and into life. The 48 stories are found within 31 chapters and each chapter opens on a page spread with text and parchment like paper background without images to set the scene. In my opinion a great combination of fonts were chosen. Then the story begins. It's like a picture book with full page spread illustrations and here the font is very small. Perfect perhaps for a child reading alone, but a little bit too small for a lap time story read aloud. At the end of each story there is an edge of the page entitles “God's Message” that has words, sometimes a poem as if God is speaking right toward the reader with both the good and bad reality of the scripture playing out in the story book pages before always with an emphasis of one day's promise. The illustrations of [a:Fausto Bianchi 4904243 Fausto Bianchi http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg] are stunning. So full of color and life, the people are so impressive as are the inanimate objects. I love this deluxe edition and I think I find we enjoy the words and illustrations so much it would be worth it to also have the good picture book size to be able to share with the family. I'm truly amazed to see how different this is from the Little Ones but just as incredible all around. Thanks to Zondervan for providing a copy for review.