Breakthrough! (hardcover)

Best Bible I've read so far thank you God bless everyone

I've been using the Catholic Youth Bible with my middle school students for years, but it's a bit over their head at time. When SMP made the full Children's bible I was tempted to purchase that. I do have a couple on hand but I felt it was a bit too primary for middle school. Break Through (NABRE) is now perfect for this age group. The structure, formatting, pictures all of it is great. I had SMP send me a sample to make sure before we ordered new sets. I even ran it by several of my students. They loved it and were very glad to know that would be able to use it this next year.

I’ve been waiting for this Bible! I have used the Breakthrough! teaching activities manual, An Introduction to People of Faith, in my classes for eight years, and I’m excited to finally have an NABRE Bible to go along with it. My sixth- and seventh-grade students will appreciate the illustrations, the Live It!, Study It!, and Pray It! sections, and many of the other extra helps available to them. I will enjoy using the maps as well as the Catholic Connections sections to supplement my instruction.

Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics (NABRE) is an excellent classroom or parish resource. This Bible is not only accessible for young Catholics, but it also invites them to encounter Scripture in exciting and meaningful ways. Each book of the Bible contains an introduction, sidebars, and illustrations to engage readers and really bring God’s Word to life. In addition, multiple resources such as maps, topical guides, and discipleship challenges allow readers to make personal connections to the text and motivate them to not just read about faith but to live it. The Breakthrough! Bible is the perfect way to introduce young people to the Word of God—by stimulating their minds and inspiring their hearts.

There is much to be excited about with the new Saint Mary’s Press Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics (NABRE). Every year I begin eighth-grade classes with an overview of salvation history. The awesome time line presented in this Bible will tremendously enhance these lessons. A challenge in reading and teaching the Bible is to help it come alive, and I believe this edition has accomplished that task by using colorful time lines, maps, and pictures, as well as an appropriate reading level. Footnotes, cross-references, and the glossary are resourceful tools to enhance everyone’s knowledge of God, his Son Jesus, and the working of the Holy Spirit throughout time. The thought-provoking additions to this Bible, such as Catholic Connections, Live It!, and Pray It!, help make reading and studying the Bible relevant to the adolescent reader. A great job has been done in including so much additional information about each book, such as Headlines, Did You Know?, and Important Themes.

There are several features in the new Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics (NABRE) that will be helpfully utilized by our middle school youth, in particular the Live It!, Study It!, and Pray It! boxes. The Bible is sometimes very complicated and can be overwhelming to anyone, especially preteens and teenagers, who have so many distractions available to them. Being able to read the Live It! box helps to apply this story of long ago to the here and now, and can help the kids see what better questions they could ask themselves or what better ways they could respond in different situations. Study It! is a nonthreatening, concise, and easy way for the youth to be guided into deeper contemplation of the verses, and may create an interest in reading even further into the story than they originally were going to do. Pray It! is great to give the youth an actual prayer that relates to the book in the Bible they are reading, and also ties into situations they may be experiencing in their own life right now. The artwork in the Breakthrough! Bible is wonderfully done and very eye catching. Of course including maps depicting journeys and the names of those places noted in the Bible is another great way to involve the youth in the actual story. These places really exist, even if they are now called something different, and that draws the reader in to a deeper level. The Make It Stick! feature, with Bible verses to look up when you are feeling a certain way to help you work things out or reinforce how you are feeling, is a great idea! Not only does this make it easier to find a particular verse, it also shows that there are several different places in the Bible where things are mentioned that are similar to how you are feeling right now or that have a situation that is the same as yours and can offer guidance.

Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics (NABRE) from Saint Mary’s Press is a treasure trove of inspiration and innovation. The artwork is imaginative and modern, and the character-by-character approach helps students personally connect to these people of faith and their stories. The layout of the introductory pages, the map appendix, and the introduction to each book of the Bible help students clearly see the “big picture” of salvation history. I always tell my students that Scripture is God’s “love letter” to us. The underlying vision of Breakthrough! is that God is always striving to have a relationship with us—to “break through” into our lives. The Live It! Study It! Pray It! and Catholic Connections articles reinforce that God is constantly involved in our everyday lives. The articles explain in easy-to-understand terms how these “old” stories of our faith have value and relevance in life’s daily ups and downs. Scripture is presented as God’s way of communicating this love, teaching us how to be better missionary disciples and bringing us closer together as children in God’s family, the Church. The Breakthrough! Bible also does an excellent job of giving relevant, age-appropriate introductory and historical material in bite-sized chunks. The creative “Bible People Encounters” and “Bible Events” pages help students zero in on individual characters in chronological order throughout Scripture. I can easily see how lesson plans, in-class activities, and long-term projects could be supported and supplemented with the introductory and appendix material! This makes it easy and fun for me to streamline my lessons. I love how the beautiful artwork, colorful maps, helpful supplemental articles, and well-organized and engaging layout of this Bible make the Scriptures come alive for the reader, no matter their age!

Another good choice for children for Easter, Break Through! by Saint Mary's Press brings older children the reader-friendly but accurate Good News Translation with "Study It!" sidebars that help young readers to "Pray It!" and "Live It!" too.

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