The Brick Bible: The New Testament – A New Spin on the Story of Jesus. Epiphany Oviedo Library section 9 A: Juvenile section, Religion and Values. (For grades 3 and up.) This is quite a special New Testament for ages 8-11. When you and your kids get a look at it you will see why! Its 270 pages are in full color and the nearly 1000 pictures are photos of bible scenes assembled from Legos! How cool is that?
The book covers three parts of the New Testament: the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the Revelation of John. Along the inner border of each page are the verses listed for each photograph. In most cases the text is straight biblical verses.
Anyone, child or adult, who has ever played with Legos is going to be fascinated with how the Lego scenes illustrate the text. In some cases the author has painted different clothes and expressions on the figures. He adds some things like shimmery netting for angel wings, black knotted cord for Simon Peter’s fishing nets, or a rubber band for rope. The parrot from the pirate Lego set is painted white and becomes the dove that descends upon Christ’s head when he is baptized. A Lego ghost becomes the Holy Spirit. Transparent red flat squares become blood. Imagine the picture for the verse, “I saw a woman sitting on a red beast that had seven heads and ten horns.” There are loaves and fishes, Lazarus in his burial wrappings, kings, queens, Pharisees, townspeople, animals, the crucifixion, miracles, traveling missionaries, and lakes of fire and brimstone. People drown, descend to hell, ascend to heaven. Their souls leave their bodies with transparent images. All done in Lego scenes made to delight your kids and you. Read it together to enjoy it. Naturally, your kids are going to want to create some of the scenes themselves with their own Legos. What fun!
I recommend that you reserve this book for older elementary school age children, because along with Jesus’ miracles, the bible has its share of violence, and this book is an honest and accurate retelling. Kids from 8 - 11 will delight in the inventive use of their old familiar Legos to tell bible stories, while younger children will find the text too mature, confusing and scary. We have hundreds of bible story books for younger children that are more age appropriate. If in doubt, sample this book first. This author has created a new way to reach children with the essence of the Bible. The stories are naturally gripping, and the scenes very clever. It encourages you to read the bible itself. The book includes a foreword by Wanda Lundy, Professor of Ministerial Studies at the New York Theological Seminary. ( )

Full disclosure: I'm an atheist.

The Brick Bible is the holy book of the Christian religion illustrated with dioramas of Lego figurines. The dioramas are filled with humour and visual gags.

There are three parts. Gospels is the Christian story of Jesus being a dick, Acts of the Apostles is the Christian story of Jesus' disciples being dicks, and Revelation of John is an apocalyptic drug trip.

Christianity shares the foibles of other religions. Are you amused by the Mormon thing where Joseph Smith conveniently misplaces a set of solid gold tablets sent by God? Well, get a load of how Jesus gets taken off the cross early (Mark 15:44) and then mysteriously turns out to not be dead after all. Are you horrified by the alleged rumour of the guy who got boiled alive in a Florida motel bathtub after trying to get back the $50,000 he donated to Scientology? Well, Christians put their version right in their holy book (Acts 5:5).

Reading the Brick Bible is a delightful and approachable way to learn more about Christianity. ( )

I so wanted to like this book, and on many levels, I do. I like that it uses something that is universally kid known and kid friendly to bring scripture to life. It is colorful, engaging and creative! I hope to use this side by side with lego to create a sort of 'Godly Play" model of exploring the Bible. I especially hope that this is an effective way to reach some of my craft-weary boys. . . BUT reading about the author (his website was flagged "adult content" by my computer), I am convinced that he included some stories in there for the sheer purpose of shock value (sodom and gomorrah, and Lot "laying down" with his daughters, circumcision, etc.) I am kind of offended not by the story, but by the sense that they were included on some level as a "joke". Really?? We need all of the circumcision pictures?? His level of maturity seems appropriate for what you might imagine an adult who plays with legos might be. His irreverence is not offensive to me as much as it is disappointing to me. this book could be so great. . . .

For context, I am a Christian Educator who serves a fairly large progressive metropolitan congregation in a mainline denomination.