"The Acrostic of Scripture" by Gibson and Brindle. A Review.

 To take a fun and thoughtful approach to passing on Scripture and what we believe to our children and grandchildren is a great way to go. That’s what the new, brightly illustrated 64-page hardcover book, “The Acrostic of Scripture: A Rhyming Biblical Theology for Kids” works at doing. The authors, Jonathan Gibson who is ordained in the International Presbyterian Church (UK) and serves as Associate Professor of Old Testament, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, and Timothy Brindle who is a Pastor at Olive Street Presbyterian Church (PCA), have pulled together an artful and creative way to present our kids with the story of God, full of Scripture and doctrine. This is the fourth installment in New Growth Press’s Acrostic Theology for Kids Series.

 

After a brief prologue from the authors, the book jumps in, moving from A to Z. Each alphabetic section is brightly illustrated by C.S. Fritz, has a cadenced summary of the subject for that letter, and then is backed up with several quotations from the English Standard Version of the Scriptures. For example, “A” covers Adam, “I” touches on Israel, and “N” takes a peak at Nehemiah and the New Jerusalem. And the metrical summary is only a few lines long, some four and others a little more. The topics include biblical women and men, as well as Scriptural episodes. The final pages of the manual include “Basic Truths to Memorize with Children” and has the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Ten Commandments. Lastly. Also, to make things even more interesting, there is a QR code at the back of the book that if you scan it will pull up an audio version of one of the authors rapping each topic. Quite fun.

 

It’s clear that the authors spent some serious brain-cell energy on making many of the additions to the book fit. Though not every rhyme is as poetically pleasing as others, nevertheless, the overall approach would make a delightful read with one’s kids or grandkids. Having spent many hours reading to my four children over the years, and now to my grandkids, I can see how this book would be quite enjoyably useful. This is a book I can happily recommend.

 

My thanks to New Growth Press for alerting me to this book and sending me a free electronic copy. They made no demands on me, other than that I write a review. Thus, my evaluation is freely made and freely given.