This colorful storybook is absolutely wonderful! This would make an ideal bedtime story book or early morning devotional type story book. Kids will be captivated by the beautiful and colorful illustrations and their attention will be kept by the stories told. Each story is followed by a "Let's talk about it" section that has simple questions.

The book contains 156 stories - enough for an entire year of Sundays. I liked this because it was easily adaptable for Home school bible time for the younger children. After reading this I am very interested in the other material available by this author for Sunday School and home school bible time.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a unique and interactive storybook to share with their children. This will no doubt be a book that piques a child's interest in the bible causing them to want to learn more and more.

Thank you B&B Publications for this review copy.

To view more by this author visit the website www.newgrowthpress.com ( )

Great children's Bible pointing them to Christ in every story! ( )

This book is a piece of art. Very well written and beautifully illustrated, this could be a magnificent gift to any children. I just wished I had received one when I was a kid.
Mr. Marty Machowski has a talent to communicate the Gospel in an easy way, captivating the attention of young audience. He divided the book in two parts: 78 stories of the Old Testament and 78 stories of the New Testament. Each full story is one page long, with an additional page with an illustration related to the topic, and a "Let's Talk About It" with three questions about the story. The ideal scenario is for an adult to read one story per night and then talk to the child asking those questions to make sure the attention was there and the concepts were understood. I cannot stress more how beautiful the illustration on the whole book is, being a big part that makes this book an instant success among the children. The illustrator is A.E.Masha. This is a must have for the permanent library of any Christian family.

This book was written by Mr. Marty Machowski and illustrated by A.E.Masha and it was published by New Growth Press in December, 2011 and B&B Media Group were kind enough to send me a copy for reviewing through their blogger book review program. ( )

As the father of five daughters, I have had ample occasions to read Children’s Bible storybooks. The majority of such storybooks are quite simple and to the point. They don’t often interact with the story at a child’s level other than to make the tale more imaginative and seem more story-like. Few storybooks really serve believing parents well.

"The Gospel Story Bible" by Marty Machowski (New Growth Press, 2011) is much different. It is uniquely designed to help facilitate the parents’ task of teaching their children the Gospel, as they recount the various stories in the Bible. The stories include discussion questions at the end, and are usually presented in a fairly straight-forward, stick-to-the-text manner. Sometimes, however, a little more explanation is woven into the story. And each story wraps up with an application to the Gospel or to the flow of redemptive history. The book’s emphasis is on communicating the Gospel intent of the Bible stories rather than on wowing the children and parents with how imaginative a reshaping of the Scriptural story this new storybook can provide.

My children appreciate the sheer number of Bible stories covered by this book (78 stories from each testament) – many of which are not addressed in other, smaller Bible storybooks. And the vivid colors and interesting illustrations also enthrall their young minds. The illustration style is unique and more artistic than you’d expect. The intent is not to depict a true-to-life version of the story so much as to provide an intriguing image that illustrates it. For my part, I think this style is perfectly suited to the book’s overall feel with its bright and colorful pages. Sometimes the smaller font, which is often colored white against a dark color background, can be hard to read however. But the size of the font helps keep the stories at two pages in length, allowing the book to stay fairly compact even as it covers a large number of stories. The glossy hardcover makes the book attractive yet also keeps it sturdy and durable.

The author’s aim in producing this book is stated in its sub-title: “Discovering Jesus in the Old and New Testaments.” And the book dovetails well with a Sunday School curriculum covering both the Old and New Testaments that has also been developed by the author (and published by New Growth Press). This curricula along with the storybook, would also serve well in a homeschool setting, as children of a wide variety of ages will be blessed and instructed through this material.

I encourage Christian parents everywhere to pick up a copy of this book. Check out some sample pages and even explore the available SS material as well. We would be remiss not to add one more tool to our arsenal as we aim to teach our children the Bible. And of course just learning facts isn’t the key, we hope they learn and embrace the Gospel. And this is what makes "The Gospel Story Bible" so compelling. I highly recommend this book.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by New Growth Press for review. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review. ( )