Spiritual Picture Books for Kids
We don’t go to church so we are studying world religions using picture books. Demi has several wonderful picture books on this topic so when I was offered a book that she illustrated, I jumped at the chance. And then, by coincidence, Alexis York Lumbard’s husband emailed me. It’s such a small world but we live in the same town! Kismet? Karma? Fate? Who knows!
How do you expose your children to world religions? Please share!
The Conference of the Birds retold by Alexis York Lumbard, illustrated by Demi
Lumbard uses prose and verse to retell a story that is a parable drawn from the Quran in a gorgeously illustrated advanced picture books for ages 6 and up. Birds are a symbol of spiritual journeying and in this story, they are seeking a wise and loving king. Each bird in the group must overcome some kind of obstacle: fear, attachment, laziness, hardship, and arrogance. The best part of the book is the surprise ending.
The Empty Pot by Demi
This is one of my all time favorite picture books. I have a post here with activity for a book club for kids or a Chinese New Year party.
One World, Many Religions: The Ways We Worship by Mary Pope Osborne
Mary Pope Osborne might be better known for her Magic Tree House early chapter book series but she was a World Religions major in college. We’ve been enjoying the short overviews of 7 major religions in this advanced picture book. It’s a wonderful overview covering Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism.
Thank you to Joseph Lumbard for another great book recommendation. The Wisdom of the Bird: A Tale of Solomon and Sheba by Sheldon Oberman. It combines several Near East legends into a single story of the hoopoe bird. Extremely well-done and a very nice accompaniment to Conference of the Birds.
He also says there is a show based on The Conference of the Birds: “The original inspiration is from the Quranic story of Solomon and the hoopoe, probably from other Near Eastern legends of the hoopoe as well. The idea of an allegory of the birds was then developed in Islamic Philosophy (Ibn Sina) and Sufism (Ahmad al-Ghazali), then Attar took Ahmad al-Ghazali’s 5-6 page allegory and fleshed it out.”
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My books:
BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 is a book that I created to highlight books written by authors who share the same marginalized identity as the characters in their books.
What a great list. The only I know is Conference of the Birds. I love adding to my To Be Read list!
Hi Stacey,
Thanks so much! I hope you like the other books! We are still using the Mary Pope Osborne book as our World Religion reference book.
This is a wonderful list. I’m a huge fan of the Conference of the Birds and Alexis Lumbard has retold it brilliantly. For my family we not only read a lot about other religions but we partake in their festival days, travel a lot and learn about the religion before we go, and ask our friends from different religions to share with us about theirs.
It’s so important to know about different religions when we live in such a diverse world. Thanks for sharing your look into the world spirituality.
Hi Valarie,
I love how you celebrate all religions! What a great education you are giving your kids!!!
I ready do love The Empty Pot and CAN’T wait to read this one!!! I’d like to add it to my bird book list.
I have my daughter in religious education. She really likes it but we have mixed feeling about it because we don’t agree with everything.
Hi Ann,
I have two copies … I am posting on reaching 1 million page views in a month and I am giving away books and other things. I realized that you left me the most comments and you were getting a book package anyway. I’ll be sure to include one of the Conference of the Birds in yours. Maybe your daughter will like it!
Hi,
First, thanks so much for all your postings, I’ve gotten so many good recommendations from your blog. I wanted to ask/request one small change on your postings, that I think would have an enormous affect on user-friendliness/usability for your site. PLEASE include a link of some sort to the actual Picture Book itself. Can this be done? Right now, everytime I see a post, I simply see the name of the book, plus a cover image. Which forces me to open up another browser window, go to Google, search the title, see where it’s sold, etc etc. It gets very old doing this over time. I mention this with all due respect. Thanks!
Hi Brian,
Thanks for your comment. Each book image is linked to an Amazon link within the post (but not the meme). Hope that helps!
I also love The Empty Pot. I’ll have to look for The Conference of the Birds!
Hi Maryanne,
The illustrations by Demi are so beautiful!
Did you know that Demi is coming out with a new book with religious themes? I really love her illustrations, and I think that The Conference of the Birds was one of my favorites!
Hi Bethany,
YES! I just got the new Hindu picture book on Krisna! Excited to cover it soon!
Wow, cool, thanks!!! We are exited for the package and copy of the Empty Pot!
Hi Ann,
Oh sorry. It’s a copy of The Conference of the Birds.
Right, conference of the birds, I was distracted, imagine that! Thanks so much!!!
Last comment, I promise!
No problem Ann! Totally understand! I don’t know how you have the time to write a blog, parent 2 kids and work nearly full time! Let alone leave comments!!
I really need to do a better job at this. We do have our own personal beliefs/faith but I feel like it’s important that I share with my children World Religions. I took a course in college and was fascinated by it all.
Thx for the list.
Hi Mari,
I am so ignorant about World Religions that I am enjoying learning about them with my kids. It’s fun to make the connections between them. There are so many similarities!