Stories That Jesus Told

Title: Stories That Jesus Told
Author: Patricia St. John
Major Themes: Parables, Bible Stories
Synopsis: Eighteen of the parables of Jesus have been retold for children and illustrated with beautiful, colorful paintings.

Every morning as part of our homeschooling day, I read aloud a Bible story or a page from a children’s devotional book. The book we just finished going through is Stories That Jesus Told, by Patricia St. John, one of my favorite authors. I first came across this book some 25 or 30 years ago, when I had a small bookstore. This was one of the books I sold, and at some stage, I kept a copy for myself for my family.

The subtitle explains this book’s purpose: The parables retold for children. There are 18 stories in this book. They include The Busy Farmer, The Discontented Son, The Missing Sheep, and The Surprised Friends. Each story is retold and expanded just slightly from the way it is recorded in the Gospels. The author has stuck very closely to the words of the Bible, but made it so much more understandable that even I picked up a few new things I hadn’t noticed before in these parables.

Every page is illustrated with beautiful, colorful paintings. They are the realistic style that I really enjoy, although not so detailed to be almost like a photograph. Each picture helps to bring the story to life.

Stories that Jesus Told is a wonderful book to read with children. This is the kind of Bible storybook that will benefit adults as well as children while they read it together. I also like that it is not as big as many Bible stories; it is a nice size to hold and read.

No warnings!