Saddleback Church, founded by Pastor Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven Life), has partnered with Zonderkidz, the children’s division of Zondervan, part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, to to create the Hey-O Storybook Bible. Working through the church’s Saddleback Kids program, the book is based on Saddleback’s Hey-O Kids Curriculum, which includes animated videos created in-house.
“Our goal was to make biblically accurate, fun, animated stories of the Bible that would engage our congregation,” said Charlotte St. Hilaire, NextGen Creative Content Pastor at Saddleback. “The incredible thing was that we found they worked for all ages of our kids from three-year-olds to sixth graders. This caused us to lock into this creative style of animation for telling Bible stories.”
The church started making the cartoons in 2015, St. Hilaire says, with their YouTube channel featuring Hey-O stories quickly growing to 750,000 subscribers, with some 225 million-plus views in 228 countries and territories. She describes being asked in 2020 what she would wish for if she had a magic wand for the ministry: "a Bible storybook in our style," she replied, adding that having a book that "families will be able to engage, with the videos and have a chance to read these stories at bedtime or throughout the day, is a dream come true.”
Saddleback Kids first reached out to Zonderkidz about a collaboration in 2022, with the company working with the Saddleback Kids team and theologians to “review the Bible stories and workshop the text and art through all editorial and design stages,” said Zonderkidz v-p and publisher Megan Dobson. “The videos’ cartoon-style characters with their catchy sayings and sound effects bring the Bible to life for kids in a way that is funny yet still reverent," Dobson says. "I knew if we could capture that same appeal with the Bible storybook, we could draw in children to read the stories for themselves and grow in their understanding and appreciation of God’s Word.”
St. Hilaire shares that goal. “Our hope for the storybook Bible is that it helps kids and families approach the Bible in a fun way so they can create a lifelong habit of being in the Word of God,” she said.
Zonderkidz is partnering with Saddleback Kids for a full marketing and publicity campaign, with Zonderkidz adding social media and YouTube, email, outreach to children’s ministry leaders, connecting with social media influencers, and podcast opportunities. In addition, both parties say they are excited about future projects, including a Spanish version of the storybook Bible.
“We’re excited to build out this brand further with Saddleback Kids," Dobson said, "and are in discussions now about the next offerings in a range of books in the Hey-O line."
