*The Biggest Story Bible Storybook by Kevin DeYoung

The “Biggest Story” brand continues with a family-friendly Bible Storybook that provides food for thought even to grownups.

*The Biggest Story Bible Storybook by Kevin DeYoung, illustrated by Don Clark. Crossway, 2022, 529 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10

Recommended for: Ages 7-12 for independent readers, 5-12 as a read-aloud

A Distinctive Brand 

Kevin DeYong’s The Biggest Story (2016) provided an outline of the entire Bible for readers 4 and up. The Biggest Story ABC simplified the outline for the board-book set, with key words in alphabetical order (Adam, Beautiful world, Curse, etc.). This Bible storybook completes the series (unless there’s a children’s Bible in the works) for independent readers and bedtime read-alouds. At 529 pages, it rivals a full-text Bible in size, and the durable cloth-spine cover and thick pages will stand up to years of rereading. Possibly even to generations.

As in the other two books, the illustrations by Don Clark are a standout feature, unique to this series. Admittedly, they are not to everyone’s taste. The colors are bold, utilizing shapes rather than lines. The shapes are basic and symbolic—circles and squares, flowers and waves, suns and moons, flames and feathers. The flat perspectives may be jarring to some readers but intriguing to others, and always worth a closer look.

Kevin DeYoung’s text may strike some parents as too casual and conversational at first, but it’s meant to reach young minds at a wide age range. Some sentences will make them smile: “Jesus didn’t come out of nowhere, like a baby just fell from the sky (that would hurt).” “Every other hero [besides Jesus] is a mixed bag—like a sack full of jellybeans and baby carrots.”

But simple, conversational terms are useful for clarifing some difficult concepts. For example, why did God judge Sodom and Gomorrah so harshly?

. . . God doesn’t just promise blessing for his friends. He also promises punishment for his enemies. That’s an important part of the story if we want the Biggest Story to be God’s story and not the Story We Invented and Made Just the Way We Like It.

Why did Jesus have to go away?

As long as Jesus was on the earth, he could only be in one place with one group of people at one time. Once he went to heaven, though, Jesus could send his Spirit to be with people everywhere all the time.

Not just for the Target Age

Some of DeYoung’s insights may startle even grownups: “[Jesus at the transformation] wasn’t transformed into another thing. Instead, he showed himself to be who he really was.” “Jesus lived out and transformed the whole story of the Old Testament.” “The first goat [on the Day of Atonement] died, that the sins of the people might be forgiven. The second goad lived and was led into the wilderness, that the sins of the people might be forgotten.”

The book is divided into parts corresponding to the divisions of the Bible, each with a brief introduction: Pentateuch, History, Poetry, Prophets, Gospels, Acts and Epistles, and Revelation. By the end, readers should have a very clear idea of the contents of the Bible. Then they can go back and read it again. It’s the story of the “Snake-Crusher” promised in Genesis, appearing in the Gospels, and returning in Revelation–the only story we must know.

Note: This book includes many picture of Jesus.

Overall Rating: 5 (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 5
• Artistic literary value: 5

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