The Action Bible: Faith in Action Edition is a children’s Bible. It is illustrated in comic book style by Sergio Cariello, published by David C Cook in February 2024, and aimed at roughly ages 8 to 12.
An earlier version of this review presented it as a resource for Christian men engaging their communities, complete with servant leadership application. That was invented. Nothing about this book is written for adults, and a man buying it for himself will be disappointed.
Buy it for your kids. That is the honest recommendation, and it is a good one.
Cariello is the reason it works
Sergio Cariello drew for Marvel and DC before this. That matters more than it sounds. Most illustrated children’s Bibles are soft and pastel and forgettable. Cariello draws in a real comics idiom, with weight and motion and faces that hold an expression.
The result is that kids who will not sit through a storybook Bible will actually read this one, because it looks like something they already want to read. Boys in particular, in my experience of what gets picked up off a shelf.
What the Faith in Action edition adds
230 stories across the Old and New Testaments. What distinguishes this edition from the standard Action Bible is a badge attached to each story marking one of seven attributes: courage, faith, hope, love, service, trust, and wisdom.
There are also QR codes leading to digital extras. Consider whether you want your kid’s Bible reading routed through a phone before you lean on that feature.
If you already own the standard Action Bible, the badges and the digital material are the whole difference. That is probably not worth buying it twice.
The thing to be clear about
It is a retelling, not a translation. The text is adapted and dramatized, and the illustrations make interpretive choices about what people and events looked like. That is fine and it is what the format requires, but it is not a substitute for a real Bible.
Treat it as the on ramp. A kid who loves this at nine should be moving toward an actual translation by twelve or so.
Worth your time?
Yes, if you have children in that age range, and especially if one of them says the Bible is boring. This is the most effective answer to that complaint I know of.
No, for your own reading. Wrong audience entirely.
The Action Bible: Faith in Action Edition on Amazon