very school should acquire a copy of Stories from the Bible (North-South pound;12.99), which uses extracts from the authorised version of the King James Bible. And so we have all those wonderful sentences beginning with “And...”: “And God saw...”, “And it came to pass...” as well as the matchless wording of Jesus’ teaching: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” Lisbeth Zwerger’s dream-like illustrations are occasionally disturbing - just right for a book that challenges the notion that Bible stories need always to be put into everyday speech and given nursery-style illustrations.

Joseph by Anna Fienberg (below), illustrated by Kim Gamble (Allen amp; Unwin pound;10.99) shows modern retellings from the Bible in the best of lights. Fienberg adopts a familiar tone - “Listen, now, and I’ll tell you the story of Joseph. You would have loved himI” - and Gamble’s illustrations convey the shimmering heat of the desert and the power of the Egyptian court.