The Story of Christmas By Gwen Ellis

The Story of Christmas                           
Story retold by Gwen Ellis
Illustrated by Steve Smallman
Publisher  Thomas Nelson

The Story of Christmas from the read and share Bible is a colorful retelling of the birth of Christ. This book comes with a 15 minute animated DVD, which includes coloring pages and other fun bonus features. It is based on the Holy Bible, International Children's Bible; and begins with the birth of John the Baptist. Next comes, the Angel appearing first to Mary, then to Joseph, the trip to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, the angels' announcement to the shepherds, the Wise men and their gifts, fleeing to Egypt, and heading home to Nazareth.

 This book would be a great present for someone with a small child; that would like to teach their child the true meaning behind Christmas. It is broken up into six two paged chapters, that are extremely simple for a small child to follow. At the end of each chapter there is a question to answer, which helps the child get involved in the story. The last three pages contain pictures from throughout the story, that you child can use to retell the story in their own words.

One of the nice things about this book is the short chapters, they can be broken up and read separate as short stories or together. However, I did find this book to be a little to short and simple for my children, and would suggest it for a child between 2-5.