Young toddlers are at the age where they are very open and willing to hear about God. Their little hearts are so malleable and yearning to learn more about God. And even though it might seem like they are too young to understand much about God, they are soaking it in! They are soaking everything in from a very young age. And if your goal is to raise Godly kids who love and follow God then now is the time to start, when they are young and eager to learn about God.
But when kids are young toddlers, they still have quite short attention spans. So while reading to them from the family Bible is very important, it’s also good to get the stories and concepts into their little minds using Bibles geared towards their age level. And we are very blessed that there are so many great resources out there to help.
In this list I will share with you some great options for Bibles for toddlers who are 1-3 years old. If you have a baby under 2, then please check out my post on Bibles for babies for some great options for the littlest ones. In future posts I will share some more options for preschoolers, and beyond. But in this post we’ll focus on some great choices for toddlers.
What should you look for in a Bible for a toddler?
Before I get to the list, let’s first talk a little bit about what you should look for in Bibles for toddlers. There are a lot of options out there, but when you’re shopping for children who are specifically 1-3 years old, here’s some things to look for in a toddler Bible:
- Lots of bright and colorful pictures for little eyes to enjoy.
- Stories that are fairly short, only 1-5 pages a piece.
- Bibles that span a short story over several pages with different pictures to keep kids’ attention.
- Options/ideas for wiggly little ones that have trouble sitting still.
- Accuracy and Biblically-based (although it doesn’t have to get too in depth at this point)
As a toddler, your child will of course not be the one reading their Bible, you will be reading it to them. But it’s important that the wording is very to the point and simple so they can understand it. And it’s good to have things that will hold their attention. This can entail lots of bright colorful pictures, stories that take up more than one page (with multiple picture changes for each page), and even some interactive options are still really good for this age.
Toddlers will still probably enjoy their Baby Bibles too! So break those out from time to time, especially the interactive ones like the lift-the-flap and touch-and-feel ones. At this point you want to imprint key stories and concepts into their minds and you want to make reading the Bible with them an enjoyable experience that they will look forward to. It’s all about creating good habits for later on at this point.
Why you should have a variety of Bibles for toddlers.
When your child is as young a toddler (or a baby) it’s a smart idea to have a variety of different Bibles for a few different reasons.
The first reason is that, because of the lack of space within children’s Bibles, none of them will have all of the Bible stories in them. There just isn’t enough space to fit it all into a Bible that has so many pictures. So having a variety of Bibles on the ready will ensure that you have a lot of different Bible stories that you can share with them from Bibles geared towards their age level.
The other primary reason you want to have a variety of Bibles for toddlers is to help keep them interested in reading their Bible. Young children have extremely short attention spans and get bored easily. And you certainly don’t want your child to get bored of God’s Word! So having a variety of options for their age level will help maintain a feeling of excitement and interest for reading God’s word within your child’s young heart.
So keeping a variety of different age-appropriate Bibles on hand for your toddler with a lot of different types of pictures and interactions will keep things interesting for them and will help to keep them coming back for more.
Bibles for Toddlers (ages 1-3)
Now for the list of options for toddler Bibles to try. Like I said before, I would suggest that you try to pick up more than one of these. Buy as many as you are willing to because the more options you have to expose your toddler to God’s Word, the better! You can often pick these up used for cheaper, so consider going that route if you want more than one but don’t want to pay full price.
The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories by Zondervan
It’s a very thick (500+ page) children’s Bible with lots of very colorful and bright pictures. It includes about 90 Bible stories and each Bible story spans about 2-5 pages with different pictures on each page. I like this because it’s better able to keep my toddler’s attention. When kids get to be toddlers they get a little wiggle worm that comes with toddlerhood, and anything that can help keep their attention is a plus!
This is one of our family favorites and I’d highly recommend it for toddlers.[sc name=”clearfix”]
The Toddler’s Bible by V. Gilbert Beers
I love the illustrations in this one, they are very bright and colorful and I love that they span two pages for each story. It sort of presents each story in a bigger way than the Bible’s with a smaller picture.
I also love that the stories are only a few sentences each. Even though you can’t get really in depth with only a few sentences, it’s a good way to introduce your toddler to so many stories from the Bible without risking losing their attention. So this is a great toddler Bible option! [sc name=”clearfix”]
The Baby Bible Series by Robin Currie
The entire Baby Bible series are really great for toddlers. There are about 7 books in the series as and I will link to all of them below.
What I like about these is that each story takes up one page and as you’re reading it has “actions” for your child to do. For example, it could say “so-and-so took a trip” and then underneath it would have the action: “make your fingers walk along your arm”. This kind of interaction is so perfect for toddlers who are wiggly and need to be moving!
Each of these do not follow the Bible chronologically but rather use a theme to tie all of the stories together. For example the ABCs one will go A-Z with each story focusing on something that starts with each letter, and so on.
These are really fun and engaging for toddlers and even though the stories are very short (a few sentences) and don’t have very much depth, they help to keep toddlers interested and still teach them about key concepts that happen within each Bible story.
Here are links to all The Baby Bible series books:
- The Baby Bible ABCs
- The Baby Bible 1,2,3
- The Baby Bible Storybook For Boys
- The Baby Bible Storybook For Girls
- The Baby Bible Animals
- Baby Bible Stories About Jesus
- The Baby Bible Sing and Pray
Read to Me Toddler’s Bible by B&H Editorial Staff
The illustrations are bold and so adorable and the stories are short enough to keep even the most wiggly toddler interested for a couple of minutes. I also love that it’s a board book, which means this would be a great Bible to read to your baby as well as your toddler.
The only thing about it being a board book is that it doesn’t include very many stories. But the stories it does include are very cute and well presented for young toddlers to enjoy. [sc name=”clearfix”]
The Early Reader’s Bible by V. Gilbert Beers
The Early Reader’s Bible is a good option for toddlers. It includes 64 Bible stories that are in very simple and easy to read language. Each story is a few sentences but takes up about 6-7 pages (including full page pictures).
It features bright colorful pictures, including a lot of full page pictures next to the text. I like that the stories span more than one page too. Both of these things are great for keeping toddlers interested as you’re reading.
Another great thing about this Bible is that each story finishes off with a “something to ask” and “something to do”, which is great for getting toddlers interacting with the story. The questions might not be something young toddlers can answer, but they are still good things to discuss. Try asking the question outloud, and then answering yourself so they can learn what the answers are.[sc name=”clearfix”]
Frolic First Bible: First Faith by Sparkhouse Family
I like that this is formatted with each story on two pages with a big colorful picture in the background. And the language is very simple and easy to understand. This would be another great option for babies OR toddlers (or great if you have both).
And probably my favorite unique thing about this one is that each story has a takeaway message at the end, like “God created you too” and “God takes care of you and your family”. These are essential truths about God that need to be instilled into young children’s minds and so I love the idea of repeating these truths to your toddler each time you read this one.[sc name=”clearfix”]
Toddler Bibles help to instill God’s Word and truths to your little ones
We are so blessed to have access to such great resources to help us as parents to train our children up in the ways of the Lord. Whether it be specialty Bibles for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and beyond. These kinds of Bible story books geared specifically towards their age group are a wonderful way to instill God’s Word and truths into their little minds in a fun and engaging way that will help them to grow in love for God and His ways.
But I’d like to stress that reading the REAL Bible with your children is also very important. Reading these fun little Bible story collections should not be a replacement to reading God’s Word straight from the Bible to your children. Take time to introduce them to the “big family Bible”, from the moment they are born and beyond.
Let them see your own love for God’s Word so that they have a good example to follow.
I hope that these toddler Bibles will help you and your children to dive in and learn God’s truth from the very beginning. And if I missed any good Bibles for toddlers, please feel free to comment below and let me know! I’d love to keep adding to this list as I find new ones. 🙂
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