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| Book cover for "Who Is My Neighbor?" |
I bought this book for my son, who is preschool-age: Stories Jesus Told: Who Is My Neighbor? [affiliate link].
I like this book and recommend it. It's the story of the good Samaritan. This post is my review of the book.
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My situation
My situation is, I'm an ex-evangelical Christian, and I want to introduce my son to the bible, but I have a lot of issues with most of the bible story books that are written for kids. They really misrepresent what the bible is. Reading those books, you'd think the bible is a collection of nice stories with morality lessons, but WOW IT IS NOT. The bible has so much WTFtastic stuff in it. A lot of foreskins, a lot of polygamy, a lot of genocide...
So I want to introduce my son to the bible, but I don't want to give him the wrong idea about what it is, but what it really is is inappropriate for little kids, so, uh, we have a contradiction. For now, I guess, I can just read him some of the stories that don't have problematic elements, or some stories which have been cleaned up to turn into a children's book. But then once he's familiar with the basic outline of a particular bible story, I need to talk to him about the parts that are complicated or weird or problematic. Show him that we don't have to agree with everything in the bible, that we struggle and wrestle with the text and make our own meaning from it. It's not a series of true statements that fell from heaven and dictate our lives.
Anyway, I am a fan of the story of the good Samaritan. I think this is a good bible story to teach kids.
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The language in this book is too hard for preschoolers
The text in this book is straight-up Luke 10:25-37. It's the actual text of the bible; they didn't simplify it to make it easier for little kids to understand. For example, the first page says this:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
So I read this page to my son, and then I looked at him and I thought "well that went over his head." So I had to then give him a simpler explanation- I said "this is Jesus, and this guy is asking him a question." (I also tried to explain "inherit eternal life" but I don't think he got that at all.) And then on subsequent readings of the book, I ask my son, "Which one is Jesus?" and he points.
I actually like how the book simply uses the text of the bible, rather than changing it to something more "kid-friendly." It means that as he grows up and is able to understand more, this book will still be useful for teaching him the story of the good Samaritan. It requires me to give my own preschool-level summary of every page, as I read it to him, but that's fine. Actually, when reading books to little kids, it's good to stop and talk about the story. Ask them what they think will happen, ask them to point at things in the pictures, etc.
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My son's reaction
Well I think the part he was most concerned about was the robbers. He kept asking me why the robbers beat up this guy on the road. I said it's because they wanted to take his money, and my son was like "why?" I think he doesn't understand money yet because we pay for everything with our phones instead of using cash.
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Conclusion
I like this book. The parable of the good Samaritan is a good story, and I'm glad I can use this book to introduce it to my son.
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Related:
Not Sure I Want My Kid Reading the Bible
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