Read & Share DVD Bible

I recently came across the opportunity to review products for Thomas Nelson Publishers. The first product I chose to review was the Read and Share DVD Bible – Volume 1. This DVD series is based on the Read and Share Bible by Gwen Ellis (also published by Thomas Nelson). The DVD included thirteen short vignettes of both Old and New Testament stories – from Creation to the Parables of Jesus. Each vignette is about three minutes long and uses a unique art-style, narration, and background music to grab the attention of young children. The DVD also included a few “extras” including “interviews”, “behind the scenes”, and coloring pages.

Personally, I would not attempt to show this DVD to anyone above the age of 4 or 5 (and that may be pushing it). My daughter (age 2), who loves cartoons, didn't really care for the style of the presentation (not a whole lot of character interaction – mostly narrative). It was definitely “Sunday School” material. If you were only watching one of the vignettes to reemphasize the lesson for the day, it's a GREAT resource. However, I would not recommend sitting and watching the DVD in it's entirety, as it starts to get slightly repetitive and since the cartoons all look alike, children may have problems determining what story they are watching.

The “extras” seemed a little pointless to me. The “interviews” was the camera man asking a class of kids what their favorite story was on the DVD – most gave the “Sunday School” answer of “JESUS!” Surprised? I thought it was an unnecessary addition to the DVD. The “behind the scenes” part was neat, if you wanted to learn about how they do the cartooning aspect of the DVDs, but I'm not sure who the intended audience was, since I'm sure it wasn't for the same kids that were watching the stories on the DVD. The coloring pages (ten in total) were nice, but they didn't exactly coordinate with the stories - i.e. there was a picture of Moses and the 10 Commandments, but that wasn't one of the stories on the DVD, and most of the other pictures were just random animals.

All that to say, this is a great RESOURCE for Sunday school teachers who want a way to help the kids remember the lesson for the day, but I don't think this DVD is a very good “at home” DVD to sit and watch in it's entirety. Just keep in mind the age group this is aimed at (1-4 year olds) and the setting it's best viewed in (class-type setting, watching only one or two vignettes at a time), and you will be able to thoroughly enjoy this DVD resource!