Book Review :: Read & Play Baby Bible illustrated by Gustavo Mazali

The Read & Play Baby Bible is a padded cover board book with lots of Bible stories and themes (22, to be exact) to share with little ones. 

The illustrations are cute, with a unique (digital + crayon strokes) style to them. The images are colorful and sweet. 

What I really appreciate about the variety of topics in this book is that there are many stories/themes which just don't seem to get highlighted in many of the books for little ones. Each page opening is a different topic. Here they are:

- God Made Everything (Genesis 1:1-27; Creation)

- The Beautiful Rainbow (Genesis 7:1-12; Noah's Ark)

- A Happy Baby (Genesis 21:1-7; Isaac)

- A Coat for Joseph (Genesis 37:1-3)

- A Baby in a Basket (Exodus 2:1-10; Moses)

- Away Goes the Water (Exodus 14:15-22; Moses/Parting of the sea)

- Ruth Stayed with Naomi (Ruth 1:14-18)

- A Quiet Prayer (1 Samuel 1:9-18; Hannah)

- Who Is Calling Samuel? (1 Samuel 3:1-10)

- David Sings to God (1 Samuel 16:18-23)

- Esther Asks for Help (Esther 5:1-5)

- Daniel and the Lions (Daniel 6:16-23)

- Baby Jesus (Luke 2:1-20; Matthew 2:1-12; Birth of Jesus)

- Jesus is Lost (Luke 2:39-52; Jesus at the temple)

- Jesus Stops the Storm (Mark 4:35-41)

- Jesus the Shepherd (Luke 15:1-7)

- Food for Everyone (Matthew 14:14-21; Loaves and Fish)

- Come and Get a Hug! (Matthew 19:13-15; Jesus loves the little children)

- High Up in the Tree (Luke 19:1-10; Zacchaeus)

- Jesus Is with Me (Matthew 28:20)

- God Always Listens (John 14:13-14)

- Up in Heaven (Revelation 21:3-4)

While I think the images are cute, I must say that this book just cannot keep my little one's attention. (In fact, he saw me looking at it by myself and came over to cover it up with another book.) He has not let me get farther than a couple pages of reading it to him, and he loves to listen to books. It is just not a hit in our house. 

I do appreciate the concept of the book (short stories for little ones with interactive moments to bring the story to life for the child), but think that the stories themselves are lacking. They are so short (just a couple sentences each) and don't have much to them. Some of the sentences just don't seem to flow like a natural conversation and, personally, I feel like they would have more "punch" to them if they had been written in rhyme.

While this book may be great for some, it's just not one for us. 

FTC Declaration: The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book or advanced reading copy. This does not change the fact that I will give my honest opinion in my reviews.