The Story Bible...

Every home with children or grandchildren should have at least one quality story bible on the shelf.  Two of my favorite story bibles are the Egermeier's Bible Story Book by Elsie Egermeier and The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos.

I first heard about and read the Egermeier Bible Story Book to RileyAnn through Sonlight K or currently Core A.  It was originally published in 1923 and is a "complete narration from Genesis to Revelation for young and old".  Egermeier's Story Bible is unbiased and doctrinally sound.  I don't hear mention of this story bible as much as the Vos Story Bible, but I believe it be of equal value.  Unfortunately, in the early 1960's, Arlene Hall revised Egermeier's original work.  I did read a revised edition, however, after comparing the two, I see major differences in what appears to be a dumbed down revision.  The following is the first paragraph of each so you can see for yourself....

1947 Egermeier Edition

This great world in which we live did not always exist.  the broad expanse of sky, which smiles upon us when days are fair, and frowns and weeps when days are foul, did not always form an arch above our earth-home.  Long, long ago there was no world at all.  There was no sun to shine, there were no stars to twinkle, nor moonbeams to play through the night shadows.  But even then there was God; for he ever has been and always shall be the same unchanging Divine Being.  

1969 Arlene Hall Revision

Long, long ago there was no world at all.  There was no sun to shine, no stars to twinkle, no moonbeams to play through the night shadows.  But even then there was God; for he has always been the same unchanging God.

I hate when people mess with original works!  I do have a couple other books written by Egermeier on our shelf, though I have not yet read them.  You can view a list of her other work here.

Another beloved story bible was published in 1935.  Written by Catherine Vos, The Child's Story Bible is a wonderful retelling of more than 200 stories from the Old and New Testament.  It too is true to Scripture.  I used Vos's Story Bible as the spine for our Ancient History study in 1st/2nd grade, reading the Old Testament aloud in conjunction with our learning about Egypt and Greece and the New Testament along with the study of Rome.

Both story bibles offer tasteful color illustrations to aid the text, which you can see below.  As mentioned, the Vos Story Bible seems to be mentioned more among living book lists, but I've found them equally favorable.  I have saved copies of each and will be reading them again with Levi.