Tyndale has just released the NLT Inspire Praise Bible. The Inspire Praise is very similar to the original Inspire (see review here) but has all new artwork, more drawings than before, and a few other changes and added features.
ISBN: 9781496426628
Tyndale provided this Bible free for review. I was not required to give a positive review, only an honest one. All opinions are my own.
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This Bible is available at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
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CONSTRUCTION AND MATERIALS
I have the purple hardcover edition of this Bible that measures 8″ x 6.5″ x 2.25″ and weighs 2 lbs, 15 oz. It has an attached purple ribbon bookmark and attached elastic band which helps keep it closed while carrying or storing it. The page edges are done in a beautiful flower and butterfly design in purple, pink, blue, and yellow.
The pages are off-white and thick (40 gsm? possibly more). It has a sewn binding and illustrated end-papers. Inside the back cover is a pocket made of purple card stock suitable for keeping notes and flat journaling materials in. Two pages of colorable stickers and a sheet with 11 blank sticker tabs come with the Bible.
It is also available in a purple butterfly and flower print flex cover with purple and white geometric patterned page edges.
TYPOGRAPHY
The Inspire Praise is laid out in single column paragraph format with poetry set in stanzas. Letters are indented and quotes are indented and set apart to make them easy to recognize. The font size is 8.65, one of the larger sizes available in a journaling Bible (without going to a large print edition). The black ink is consistent throughout.
The header includes the page numbers in the upper outside corners and the reference verses centered over the text. It has two inch wide margins with 36 light lines in any that don’t have artwork.
The introduction to the New Living Translation, names of the Bible translation team, and translation footnotes are included. The footnotes have verse number references so you know which verse they correspond to, but the text itself only has asterisks instead of numbers or letters. This keeps down confusion (No “is that a verse number or a footnote reference?”) and disrupts the flow of reading less.
ARTWORK
The artwork is the main feature of any illustrated journaling Bible and the NLT Inspire Praise Bible has over 500 illustrations.
There are illustrated book titles,
full page illustrations,
and partial page artwork at the end of some chapters.
There are numerous verse drawings in the margins with a wide variety of lettering and art styles.
Also included are a few word art drawings.
Where this Bible is truly unique though is the 32 illustrated, partially colored, clear page inserts. (They call it high quality tracing paper, possibly vellum of some type) Each one has a verse from the Psalms and an illustration that could be left the way it is or you could finish coloring to personalize. They each have room for a response to the verse in words or your own artwork.
I tried a variety of art mediums on the vellum sheet that highlights Psalms 145:2. Colored pencils on the pink flower the water is being poured onto, gel pens on the bee, watercolor pencils on the sunflower, and gelatos mixed with water for the branch and black outlined leaves on the left side of the picture. All of them worked well though you will want to allow a little extra drying time for the gel pens.
I also used gelatos for the blue in the empty space in the middle. Dry the gelatos blended out slightly better then they do on plain Bible paper but not as well as they do on top of gesso.
PRAISE THEME
The praise portion of the Inspire Praise Bible name is most evident by being the theme of all 32 color inserts.
There is also this beautiful introduction (including a prayer), and an illustrated page with Psalm 145 at the beginning of the Bible.
The end papers and of course some of the illustrated verses in the Bible also highlight words of Praise and reasons to praise God.
I like the idea of adding specific themes to all illustrated Bibles past the first produced by the same publisher. This gives them a focus for changes and added features and possibly for our study as we work through them as well. It also suggests people and/or occasions these Bibles would make good gifts for. I think Praise was an excellent choice for the second Bible in the Inspire line.
INDEX OF DESIGNED VERSES
I like when the illustrated Bibles include an index of the artwork. It makes it so much easier to find a pre-drawn illustration to go with a particular Bible study. The index does not include the verses on the 32 clear sheets.
COMPARISON TO THE INSPIRE BIBLE
Any of you who already own the first Inspire Bible (or have looked at one quite a bit) probably want to know exactly how the two Bibles compare.
The Inspire Praise is the same height and width but a bit thicker because it has noticeably thicker paper (we can feel the difference).
It has approximately 100 more drawings for you to color and all of them are different than the ones found in the original Inspire.
The paper is lighter is color, more of an off-white instead of the yellowy cream so common in journaling Bibles. They are hoping this change in paper color will please those that find the yellowed paper changes the colors of some of their art mediums slightly.
While the pagination is not exact (page 200 looks exactly like page 200 in another edition) they are using the same typeset as the previous Inspire Bibles. For example these pages in Proverbs. The page on the right in the top one (Inspire Bible, page 779) and the page on the left in the bottom Bible (Inspire Praise Bible, page 784) are the exact same text, Proverbs 27:13 through 28:6, in the same layout and size including the footnotes. If you are very familiar with your previous Inspire this will make finding verses easier unless you forget that in some cases it will be on the opposite side. The difference in numbering is caused by the differences in quantity and placement of full page illustrations between the two.
The thicker paper is very nice. It might help somewhat with bleed through. Show through is comparable to that of the original Inspire because lighter paper is naturally less opaque and the added thickness just brings it back to approximately the same level of opacity.
This is all show through which will become less obvious once the II Corinthians side is colored.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE INSPIRE PRAISE BIBLE
The Inspire Praise Bible is a beautiful addition to the journaling Bible market. Fans of the original Inspire and/or illustrated Bibles will find this an excellent choice if they are ready to add to their collection. Like all illustrated journaling Bibles this would make a great choice for someone just starting with Bible journaling as well.
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This Bible is available at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
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Photography by hannah C brown except photo of soft cover which was provided by Tyndale