Zach Nielsen recently bought David Helm's Big Picture Story Bible and blogs about his experience of reading it with his kids.
My experience with this book has been very similar. The theology is good--it's basically Graeme Goldsworthy for kids, as it uses the integrating motifs of God's people in God's place under God's rule. And the illustrations are uniquely attractive and informed. The perspective of the drawings is often looking down at the characters, as if from God's point of view. And in a couple of scenes, the people have their hands raised heavenward in worship, but the shadow is cast back toward idolatry, foreshadowing what is coming next.
My 3-year-old daughter requests that we read from it nearly every night. She's learning the storyline of the Bible.
At one point she said to me: "I don't like God very much. He's kind of scary."
An immediate temptation, of course, is to try to talk her out of that line of reasoning: Oh no, honey, he's not scary--he's nice and loving. You should like God!
But instead I simply said: "That's how all of us feel apart from grace. We should pray that God would change that." But at the same time, I'm thankful that she is taking God seriously as she reads over and over again the consequences of rebellious idolatry.
