Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Book Club: Book Review of The Bible Recap Study Guide

A Mom's Quest to Teach logo: Book Club: Book Review of The Bible Recap Study Guide

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Last year I had the pleasure of reviewing The Bible Recap: A One-Year Guide to Reading and Understanding the Entire Bible by Tara-Leigh Cobble. This year, I have been reviewing two additional books that accompany The Bible Recap

The Bible Recap Study Guide: Daily Questions to Deepen Your Understanding of the Entire Bible is a softcover book of 379 pages that takes readers on a 52-week journey to read the entire Bible. The Study Guide provides information on how to use the guide itself: 

  • Pick a reading plan 
  • Use The Bible Recap Journal
  • Use the study guide 
  • Listen to the podcast or use The Bible Recap book 
  • Visit thebiblerecap.com for weekly discussions and more information

A Mom's Quest to Teach: Book Club: Book Review of The Bible Recap Study Guide book cover


Tara-Leigh Cobble writes that you don't have to use all the resources, but they will complement each other. Personally, I used The Bible Recap book this year and the reading plan on YouVersion but did not venture to the podcast or website. This year I would like to incorporate The Study Guide and the journal into my daily Bible reading. 

The Study Guide is very easy to navigate and to use. Each of the 52 weeks of readings is broken up in the table of contents by days and provides the Bible book and chapter number. So even if you aren't reading the Bible in its entirety using The Bible Recap chronological reading plan, you can find each Bible reading easily. 

When my copy of The Study Guide arrived, I was on about week 49 or 50 using The Bible Recap chronological reading plan. It was very easy to pick up where I was in the study guide. I really like how the two books complement each other so well. I can sit with each and my Bible to answer the questions. 


A Mom's Quest to Teach: questions in The Bible Recap Study Guide



What Are the Questions Like?


There are some questions that require outside research, such as Day 345: Romans 14-16, #2
"Look up the word used for 'keep' (14:22) in a Greek lexicon and write down what you find. How does this help inform our understanding of this verse?" (page 357) 

There are also some questions that are repetitive but not in a bad way. As you start a new book in the Bible, The Study Guide asks: 
  •  Who wrote the book?
  • "To or for whom was it written?" 
  • "When was it written?" 
  • What is the literary style? 
I like that we are asked to think about individual authors as well as put the books of the Bible into context while working our way through the reading plan. 

There is plenty of room to write one's answers in The Study Guide. The pages are of a nice quality, but I can still see my writing showing a bit through on the reverse side. (I don't see this as a distraction, though.) I like that the cover design is the same as The Bible Recap. They all look nice on my shelf. I do find the material of the book covers tends to grab dust if the book sits on the coffee table a day or two untouched. 

What Do I Think? 


I think if you are looking for a study guide to help you deepen your understanding of the Bible, this will be a welcome resource. The questions go beyond just simple identifications and ask you to think critically. You can write your answers in The Study Guide or your own journal or Bible. I think teens to adults would find The Bible Study Guide to be helpful. I look forward to using it as I continue to read through the Bible year after year.  

If you would like to learn more about The Bible Recap, please read my review here: Book Club: Book Review of The Bible Recap.

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Book Club: Book Review of The Whole Bible Story

 A Mom's Quest to Teach logo: Book Club: Book Review of The Whole Bible Story on green background

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of The Whole Bible Story from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

While I feel nothing is better than reading the Bible itself, sometimes it is useful to have a lighter version or youth version to read with our children. Once you move away from the storybook Bibles, where can you turn for an edition that is geared towards ages 8 to 12? Bethany House recently released a new book in the category of Young Adult Bible Stories called The Whole Bible Story: Everything That Happens in the Bible


About The Whole Bible Story 


This is a 302-page paperback book where Dr. William H. Marty with Troy Schmidt tells the stories of the Bible with explanations that will help the young readers understand what the stories are actually all about. The nineteen chapters are all set up in a similar fashion. They include: 

  • Who's who?
  • Where are we?
  • Interesting Stuff in the section 
  • Retelling of the Bible Stories of references to the Bible chapters 
  • What's the Point? (a summary) 


Interspersed among those parts are black-and-white illustrations that bring the Bible stories to life. And occasionally, there are other key points pulled out in boxes for the readers to focus upon.


A Mom's Quest to Teach logo; The Whole Bible Story book cover and page from book


My Thoughts 


The Whole Bible Story is a great resource for your young children as they navigate the Bible.  I handed our copy of the book to our eight-year-old son to read during the review period. He finished reading it in a few days. I would say the book was a hit based upon that fact alone. 

Our son shared the following when I asked him his thoughts: "The Whole Bible Story has details that can be hard to find in the Bible. I liked how there were funny parts at the beginning of each chapter. For example, 'Isaac - Abraham and Sarah's son born whey they were in their eighties and nineties!' I also liked the pop-ups or inserts where facts were shared. Specifically, I liked the part where Zacchaeus doesn't like big crowds." 

After our son finished reading the book, I handed The Whole Bible Story to our six-year-old daughter, so she could read it, too. She is working through the book more slowly but loves to talk about what she has already read with me. 

Our daughter told me, "I like the little gray parts (these are the facts pulled out for focus in each chapter)." One of the stories that stayed with her was the story of Jacob and Esau. "The story of Jacob and Esau shows us how to forgive others because Esau forgave Jacob," she said when I asked her what she learned from the book. "I think it is very interesting."  


A Mom's Quest to Teach: Book Club: Book Review of The Whole Bible Story book cover on green background


Personally, I begin reading any book that retells the Bible very thoughtfully. The written Word of God is best read in the Bible, but I do believe there are occasions when we can look elsewhere for assistance in bringing the Bible to life for our children. I will admit that, when I began reading The Whole Bible Story, I was unsure if I would share it with our children. In the Who's Who section, Adam and Eve are identified as "the first couple ever created; they run around naked," and Mesopotamia was identified as "some country that is hard to spell" (7). This caused me to pause and read through the first several chapters thoughtfully and carefully. It wasn't till after I had read chapter seven or eight, where we read about the judges and the kingdom under David, that I felt comfortable passing the book to our son. 

If you are looking for a way to talk to your children about the stories in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, I would recommend you check out The Whole Bible Story. As with any book, you should preview it before you share The Whole Bible Story with your children, but I do feel the book will open up many discussions about the Bible and its events with your children. I can see this book being a useful part of our homeschooling journey for years to come.