Tween Bibles & Devotionals - What Do You Recommend?

Tween Bibles & Devotionals

A few weeks ago, I had a query from a mom who reads our site regularly. Colleen's note read in part:

My daughter is 10 and too old for the children's bibles and too young for the teen bibles. She reads the Bible and I want to get her one perfect for her level. I have several of of your books and appreciate any advice for Catholic reading for a tween girl who is very interested.

I had to admit to Colleen that I've been a bit removed from the tween scene of late. Her email caused me to reach out to fellow moms in a few of my favorite social media venues. Their responses included the following:

• "My 10 yo has started reading the Catholic Children's Living Bible every night on her own!  I remember the Living Bible from growing up, and I'm not a huge fan, but the language is clear (sometimes too clear!) if not beautiful."
• "The Catholic children's bibles I have (probably at least 5 of them) all seem geared towards children no younger than 8.  Certainly, it would be hard for someone younger than 8 to read them.  At age 10-13, my kids are starting to be able to read anything an adult could.  So we've never looked for anything in between."

Reader Lauren recommended the following bibles for teens:

• The Catholic Youth Bible,Third Edition, NABRE: New American Bible Revised Edition (St. Mary's Press)
• Catholic Teen Bible (Life Teen)
• Prove It Catholic Teen Bible (Our Sunday Visitor)

Another resource that was recommended specifically for teens is the new devotional You're Worth It! - A Scripture Devotional Helping Teens to Love God! by Pat Rinker, now available in Kindle format.

I'd love to hear from you - our readers - on this topic. Do your tweens and teens have a favorite bible? Is your family in the habit of reading the bible together? Finally, what can we do to encourage our tweens and teens to be more active in their devotional lives?

Be sure to check out our Book Notes archive.

Copyright 2013 Lisa M. Hendey