Canonical gospels

Okay kiddo, so you know how when you listen to a story being told by different people, sometimes it's a little bit different each time? Well, the stories about Jesus in the Bible had the same problem. There were lots of stories floating around about Jesus, and each group of people had their own favorite stories and ways of telling them.

So, some really smart people who were trying to make sure everyone had the same understanding of Jesus's life and teachings decided that they needed to choose which stories were the most important and true. They picked four books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and said that these were the most accurate and reliable stories about Jesus.

These four books are called the "canonical gospels." "Canonical" means that they are recognized as the official and authoritative sources of information. So, whenever people talk about the life and teachings of Jesus, they usually turn to these four books as the most trustworthy sources.