Read, Wonder, Listen: A History of Children’s Bibles in Broadview Magazine

January 10, 2021

Over the summer I was interviewed by Pieta Woolley, who was researching the history and development of children’s bibles for Broadview Magazine. She wanted to talk about Read, Wonder, Listen: Stories from the Bible for Young Readers, the collection of bible stories I wrote for Wood Lake Books.

We had a fairly lengthy conversation about the process of selecting and retelling stories–both acts of interpretation–and the motivation that lay behind it.

While only a tiny portion of that conversation is reflected in the published article, it was valuable to me to reflect more intentionally on why I chose to tell (or not to tell) particularly stories, what principles guided my interpretation, and what I hoped my work might offer to children.

Here is a snippet: “In her introduction, [Alary] summarizes high-level biblical interpretation and invites children to approach scripture in a sophisticated way. ‘The fact that people in the Bible disagree about things tells us that we can still be the people of God even if we do not think the same way about everything,’ she writes. ‘What matters is learning to ask good questions, to listen carefully, to think deeply, and — as Jesus taught and showed us — to love one another.’

To read the whole article, click here: https://broadview.org/childrens-bibles/