More Than a Story by Sally Michael

More Than A Story is written in two volumes: Old Testament and New Testament. Both volumes are structured identically. They use a large amount of biblical text in each chapter. The introduction explains this to help remind children of the “authority, clarity, necessity, and sufficiency of the Bible. God’s Word is truly ‘more than a story’!” When Scripture is quoted, the text appears in an italicized, brown font, and the reference is always listed. The rest of the text in each chapter is in a black font, but when a word or phrase is bold it is noting a biblical truth.

The end of each chapter contains a text box titled “Making You Wise for Salvation” or “That You May Believe”. In this box, the parents are encouraged to discuss the chapter read by answering the question “What does this story tell us about God?” and then encouraging the parent to go back and review the biblical truths in bold throughout the chapter. The rest of the box is broken into 5 categories: Salvation Thread, Talk About, Think About, Pray, and Memorize. The “Salvation Thread” includes truths about salvation that are witnessed in this chapter, and it will sometimes contain a question or two to ask the child about salvation. The “Talk About” section will contain a quote from Scripture to talk about along with some questions to answer about that Scripture. The “Think About” section gives additional Scripture references to look up with your child in a different book of the Bible to connect to the chapter. Next, there are prompts to help the parent pray with their child. It ends with verses to memorize.

The Old Testament volume includes 90 chapters laid out in chronological order, not the order of the Bible. Each chapter focuses on a chunk of Scripture or an entire book of the Bible depending on the book’s length and content. For example, Genesis is split into 18 chapters while Job is 1 chapter. Several special pages throughout this volume highlight big ideas such as the Ten Commandments, maps, David’s song of thanks, God’s heart for His people, the new heavens and the new earth, and the intertestamental period.

The New Testament volume continues, starting in chapter 91, to give a visual reminder that the Bible is one connected story. There are 66 chapters in this section. The Gospels are so interwoven, that the author will often use all 4 Gospel books for a chapter depending on what each author included. The special pages included in the New Testament volume are the beatitudes, the Lord’s prayer, I AM, man of sorrows, the Old Testament pointed to Christ, loving like Jesus loves, dear church, the bad news in Romans/the good news in Romans, the great faith chapter, the whole armor of God, the fellowship with God and one another, and is he worthy.

These volumes are packed to the brim with Scripture. In my opinion, this is more than a story Bible; it is a valuable resource to help your child make connections with Scripture. The chapters are a little longer than a typical story Bible, so I would use this resource with kids able to sit for longer periods of time. This would be an excellent resource for Sunday School lessons as well.

I love that each chapter in both volumes points to Jesus. Jesus is not explicitly mentioned in each chapter; however, the need for a Savior and God’s promises are brought up in each chapter. I also value the text box at the end of each chapter to foster discussion with children about the text presented.

There are well-done illustrations throughout each volume. The skin tone of the people is generally tan or a little lighter in appearance and the hair of the people is depicted as a darker brown or black.

The entirety of the Bible is referenced in these two volumes, but there are a few areas where sensitive pieces are dealt with in an age-appropriate manner. For example, when David sins with Bathsheba, the author says “he treated her as though she was his wife” when describing the sin. The author also leaves out Dinah’s story and the intense details in Lot’s story.

Overall, I am very impressed by these books. As a mom, I find these to be incredibly helpful when studying the Bible with my children. They are a great supplement to use alongside reading Scripture as a family.

This review is written by Good Book Mom contributor, Tricia. To learn more about Tricia, click HERE.

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