April 2nd: International Children’s Book Day
Happy international children’s book day! We’ve celebrated by rounding up some of our favorite children’s books about faith.
Mother God
By Teresa Kim Pecinovsky
“You know God the Father, but God is your Mother too.”
With lyrical, rhyming text and exquisite illustrations, Mother God introduces readers to a dozen images of God inspired by feminine descriptions from Scripture. Children and adults alike will be in awe of the God who made them as they come to know her as a creative seamstress, generous baker, fierce mother bear, protective mother hen, strong woman in labor, nurturing nursing mother, wise grandmother, and comforting singer of lullabies.
This gorgeous picture book welcomes children into a fuller, more diverse understanding of what it means to be made in the image of God.
This I Know: Seeing God in the World He Made
By Clay Anderson
“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the whole world tells me so.”
Have you noticed the fingerprints of God in the world around us?The creation tells us about its Creator. His beauty in the trees. His power in the thunder. His eternity in the night sky.
Join a family on an unforgettable road trip, as they witness the wonder of God’s world. And see how all of creation confirms what the Bible tells us: Jesus loves me, this I know.
Experience a day filled with wonder!
Whether it’s a morning sunrise that reminds us that God makes everything new… A frightening thunderstorm that shows us God’s power… A gentle snowfall that demonstrates God’s grace… Or nighttime crickets that help us rest in God’s peace…everywhere in creation, we see the craftsmanship of God, filling our world with His beauty and character!
What Is God Like?
By Rachel Held Evans
Children who are introduced to God, through attending church or having loved ones who speak about God, often have a lot of questions, including this ever-popular one: What is God like? The late Rachel Held Evans loved the Bible and loved showing God’s love through the words and pictures found in that ancient text. Through these pictures from the Bible, children see that God is like a shepherd, God is like a star, God is like a gardener, God is like the wind, and more. God is a comforter and support.
And whenever a child is unsure, What Is God Like? encourages young hearts to “think about what makes you feel safe, what makes you feel loved, and what makes you feel brave. That’s what God is like.”
When God Made You
By Matthew Paul Turner
YOU, you… God thinks about you.
God was thinking of you long before your debut.
From early on, children are looking to discover their place in the world and longing to understand how their personalities, traits, and talents fit in. The assurance that they are deeply loved and a unique creation in our big universe is certain to help them spread their wings and fly.
Through playful, charming rhyme and vivid, fantastical illustrations, When God Made You inspires young readers to learn about their own special gifts and how they fit into God’s divine plan as they grow, explore, and begin to create for themselves.
‘Cause when God made YOU, somehow God knew
That the world needed someone exactly like you!
Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints
By Daneen Akers
“Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints” is an illustrated children’s book about people of diverse faiths working for more love and justice in their corners of the world, even when that means rocking the religious boat. With original portraits from more than two dozen artists and engaging profiles of people from different faiths and different eras, these are stories that inspire, educate, challenge, and encourage.
Some of the people featured in this book are well known, like the beloved St. Francis of Assisi (a favorite of Hufflepuffs everywhere for his love of animals), who gave up a wealthy inheritance to serve the poor, Rumi, the Sufi poet, and Thich Nhat Hanh the beloved teacher who developed the concept of engaged Buddhism. Some are well known, but the deep faith motivating their work is lesser known, such as Harriet Tubman, Florence Nightingale, and Mr. Rogers. Others are less known such as Bayard Rustin, an American Quaker whose role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s is often downplayed because he was a gay man; Maryam Molkara, an Iranian Muslim transgender rights advocate; and Regina Jonas, the first female rabbi to be ordained whose story was almost lost to history.
In particular, “Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints” emphasizes the stories of women, LGBTQ, Black, Indigenous, and other people of color who are too often written out of religious narratives. These stories move us towards more love and a faith that works for the common good of us all.
“Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints” is a middle-grade nonfiction (ages 8 and up) book.