Heroes and Villains of the Bible--A Book Review

"Heroes and Villains of the Bible" is aimed at kids about the same age as mine: tween to early teen. The content of the book is right in line with the title. There are 50 stories, each about a different person in Scripture, and each clearly defined as a hero or as a villain. The first two, God and then Satan, are obvious. Some others in ensuing chapters are equally obvious: Moses, David, Daniel, Females are not to be left out, either: Esther gets a chapter devoted to her heroism, and Delilah is one of the villains.

Each chapter has high-quality illustrations which, at first glance, appear to be photographs. The text in each chapter is straight from Scripture (International Children's Translation). No extra narrative is given.

Interestingly, there are a few lesser-known characters which receive some focus. Probably the most notable are Potiphar's wife and Herodias. I'm torn about the inclusion of these two in this book. On one hand, it's a good thing that more obscure characters are mentioned, as it helps the reader get beyond the best-known bible stories. However, both of these stories have sexual elements to them. My 10-yr-old, who read through this book in one day, has been made aware of the birds and bees, but his 7-yr-old brother has not, yet wants to read the book that his bog brother is reading. So be aware of that going in.

With that one caveat, I recommend "Heroes and Villains of the Bible" to anyone with kids in that general age range. We're going to be using it in our family's bible time every now and then.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.

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