I know I’ve said it many times before, and I know if you have kids around the age of ten you probably have experienced it too, but my kids are crazy for Legos. If it weren’t for video games, Legos would be EVERYTHING in our house. Which is great. They inspire creativity, they work those engineering brain muscles, they’re all around awesome toys. Zonderkidz recognizes how great these toys are, and how much kids love them, and they’ve come up with something that many of you are going to love: the Faith Builders Bible. For the purpose of this review, the boys and I received one hardback copy of this Bible.

Faith Builders Bible is an illustrated NIrV (New International Reader’s Version) Bible. I was unfamiliar with the term “NIrV,” but it’s similar to the popular New International Version, but with more common words to make it easier for younger readers or readers for whom English is not their first language. The layout of this is similar to an illustrated Bible you might have had as a child. It is the full scriptures with pictures of major stories inlaid throughout the text. It is not just Bible stories, it is the real NIrV text, broken down into chapters and verses as a real Bible should be.

The pictures throughout this Bible are made entirely out of building bricks (what we often refer to as Legos, but this is not brand-specific). They depict common popular scenes from the Bible, such as Moses with the Ten Commandments and David defeating Goliath. Along with the picture, a caption explains further what is happening in the picture and each comes with a “Building Block Verse,” a Bible verse that goes along with the picture. The pages of the Bible that do not feature pictures are your typical very thin Bible paper, which could make it difficult for younger children to thumb through without tearing.

In the past year, I’ve been trying to familiarize my boys with common biblical stories. We finished a book of stories right around the time we received this Bible for review. Now that they’re familiar with the stories, this was a nice way to introduce them to the actual layout of and terminology used in the Good Book. The NIrV made reading it easy for them to read and understand, while still maintaining the message and style we expect from the Bible. The brick model pictures not only provided a fun visual aid to their reading but also inspired their own building. All of a sudden, minifigures became characters they had been reading about and entire biblical worlds popped up on our living room Lego village.

I think this Bible is perfect for brick lovers right around age ten. I would recommend it for around eight to thirteen, obviously depending on your own child and their interests and abilities. My eight year old is still a little careless and I worry he will rip the thin pages, though so far so good. But as far as the reading level goes, he hasn’t had any problems keeping up with it or understanding what he is reading. They both love the pictures, but honestly wish there were more of them. As I said, this is more Bible than bricks. I think if you are using this as a study Bible or something that went to church with your kids, it’s perfect. The pictures are fun but there aren’t so many as to be a constant distraction. We will continue to use this Bible as a part of our regular reading, as we continue our study of biblical literature.