Fifty favourite Bible stories

Selected and Narrated by Cliff Richard
Retold by Brian Sibley, Illustrated by Stephen Waterhouse
Lion Children’s, 2008, £14.99, Hardback, 160p., colour illustrations, includes three audio compact discs, ISBN 9780745960616.

This is a lovely book – beautifully presented and illustrated. It is divided into Old and New Testaments and the order is such that nearly every story has a link to the previous one. The language used is very suitable for children of about eight or over – I feel that some of the stories are a little long for younger children who have a very short attention span.

There is clever avoidance of any potentially embarrassing bits e.g. Adam and Eve by simply stating facts which will be a relief for anyone teaching children who can pick up on anything to do with sex.

Cliff Richard’s narration on the compact discs is very good with great expression and works well if you are reading the story at the same time. My only criticism would be that if you are doing a story say each day a change of voice might be welcome.

Stephen Waterhouse’s illustrations are truly wonderful and attractive to children.

It is a very useful book for anyone teaching children the Bible stories and also very suitable for children to read themselves.

Contributed by: Anne MacRitchie, BSc, who works for NHS Grampain as an Information Assistant and serves as CLIS Regional Representative for Scotland.