Have you been looking for a new Bible for your LEGO loving, brick builder kids? I have heard about these before, but I’ve never seen one until now. We’ve been able to review the Faith Builders Bible from Zonderkidz.
The Bible is translated into the New International Reader’s Version (NIrV), which is specifically for kids and at about the third grade reading level.
Within the Faith Builders Bible, there are 24 full-color pages sprinkled throughout the standard Bible text.
Immediately upon seeing the LEGO figures “reenacting” scenes of the Bible, my kids were drawn in. They wanted to look through the Bible and couldn’t wait to see what other brick-building ideas were in the book.
On each of the colorful pages with the pictures of the bricks, there is a topic being discussed,a short summary with recommended reading to be able to read the full story for themselves, as well as a Building Block Verse. For example, for this little snippet about David defeating Goliath, the verse reads:
David said to Goliath, “You are coming to fight against me with a sword, a spear and a javelin. But I’m coming against you in the name of the LORD who rules over all.” 1 Samuel 17:45
I like this, because this comes straight from their recommended reading (1 Samuel 17) and serves as another way to get the kids excited to read the full story. It also helps them to identify the important part that they need to pay attention to.
This translation makes it so easy for kids to read the Bible on their own. Instead of getting caught up in what is essentially a language barrier, they were able to focus on the actual meaning behind the words because they had no trouble understanding the verbiage.
My kids took turns reading scriptures to each other, and my 6 year old brought it to me at bedtime a few times to read to him before they went to sleep. It was simple enough for him to understand, which is saying a lot considering some of our past experiences with other Bibles using different translations.
My kids don’t have a ton of the specialty figures, so they’ve already asked me to buy them more LEGO people. They want to build some of the more elaborate Bible scenes with more LEGO guys as shown in the Faith Builders Bible, like the story of Zacchaeus (they loved seeing him stuck up in the tree and wanted to do it, too!), the Last Supper, and Building the Tower of Babel.
They improvised for several of the scenes. Their favorite was making fruit to talk about The Fruit of the Spirit. They had little competitions about who would be able to create the most accurate little LEGO fruits from the blocks we had.
They liked reading the scriptures about the fruits of the spirit and trying to decide which ones sounded most like them. It opened up the discussion about how they could be more patient, too.
I also liked that they didn’t just show pictures of blocks and LEGO guys to illustrate stories. The Faith Builders Bible also illustrated concepts. For example, they showed the ABCs of Salvation.
By having my kids actually build the letters and read the corresponding text, this experience is helping them to understand what it means to be a Christ-follower. I’ve told them the ABCs before, but actually making the A and talking about admitting our sins, building the B and discussing what one must believe, and putting together the C to talk about confessing faith in Jesus really made it real. I appreciated the suggested Scriptures for each one, too.
The only change I can really think of is that I wish it was a red-letter edition, with the words of Jesus clearly shown for kids to know He was talking. That’s a feature I always loved in my Bible as a kid, because that really got my attention reading through some of my favorite New Testament stories.
My family has been enjoying this new Bible, and they look through it often. I’m glad that something has caught their eye to get them to read more Scripture!