For a while now we’ve been in that awkward period with our oldest child where the picture Bibles are too dumbed down and the NIrV is still a little too advanced.

The Day by Day Kids Bible by Karyn Henley is an excellent bridge between the two. This version is a paraphrase written for a second-grade reading level. Henley has arranged it in chronological order. It is adjusted for a young reader, but it is not fictionalized. For example, when the two angels visit Lot in Genesis 19, the men of Sodom demanded that the visitors come out so they could “be mean” to them. It communicates the gist of story without introducing concepts that are beyond the maturity of an early grade-schooler.

It is broken up into 365 sections that can be read in seven minutes. So, the challenge is to “read the bible in a year in just seven minutes a day.”

With any paraphrase, there are always going to be passages that I would have worded differently than the author, but on the whole, Henley seems to have done a pretty good job. We’ve only had it for a week, but the kids have been excited about reading the “big kid” Bible every night.