Religious Instruction

Over at Random Outlaw this weekend, Lisa raised an issue that I simply had to tackle:

I think that it's important to learn about different religions in the context of cultural study.  Understanding belief systems lowers prejudice.  It is a very important part of a person's education. My question then becomes, how do I teach this stuff to my kids?  Is there a comparative religions class for kids?

Now, Lisa is an atheist and I'm not, but isn't this a great question?  I mean, never mind the many fantastic theoretical positions at stake here, it opens up great avenues for list-making!  So, tonight's goal: a brief and definitely not comprehensive list of picture books about religious practices.  The goal: surround my preschoolers with at least a few tidbits of information about how different people worship the Divine, and inspire them to learn more as they grow older.

A little background before we get to my first stab at a list:

Lisa grew up in a Catholic home where discussions about competing world views were discouraged, or forbidden.  I grew up Minnesota's largest Jewish town (at one point in the mid-eighties, there were rumors that it had the largest Jewish population per capita outside Jerusalem -- although that might just have been bragging) and my best friend for most of my teens was Jewish.  I'm comfortable with the fact that my kids are going to know friends of different (or no) religious belief, and the fact that they will observe or even participate in other religious ceremonies.  Already their closest friend in our neighborhood is Jewish, and they've learned about Jewish and Hindu holidays at preschool.

Okay, time to get to it.  But not without a few caveats.  First, the list is a bit uneven--some of the stories address religious practice today, some of them present important teachings, people, or dieties, and some of them might be considered only indirectly engaged in questions of religious belief.  It doesn't end up feeling remotely equivalent between traditions and faiths, so any additions (or subtractions, for that matter, since the only book I've actually read is Every Day and Sunday, Too) would be welcome.  I erred on the side of "small stories" rather than compendiums, even though there appeared to be several good books on, for example, all the holidays in the Jewish year.  I wanted to pick books that worked as introductions, that would inspire us to read more books, rather than find that "one book on Jewish religious practices" or "what Islam means."

That reminds me, it's rather dismaying, the lack of equivalance between religions.  I have an entirely separate list of beautiful picture books illustrating the big stories of the Christian Bible, but I didn't really find anything similar for other world religions.  (Do Jews and Christians buy the same picture books about Moses, Joseph, Jonah, and Daniel?  I suppose we don't really want retailers to track that information, but it's a cool question.)  There really needs to be a series of picture books presenting some of the basic teachings of the Q'uran, anyway.  Is there some Q'uranic prohibition against re-tellings of the material?  Demi managed to create a picture-book biography of Mohammad that was endorsed by various Muslim scholars....

I had to abandon Native American / Indian religions early on, so I thought I would share with you a great resource for Native American children's books in general.  Several years ago, I stumbled onto the Oyate catalog of Indian books for preschoolers and it has provided several family favorites.  We all love Grandmother's Pigeon and First Strawberries, but How Chipmunk Got His Stripes is the hands-down favorite. "The sun will not come up, humph. / The sun is going to rise, oooo." Brings down the house, every time.

I couldn't manage to hit on a good set of search terms for specifically African-American Christianity, and I have mixed feelings about Kwanzaa (which you should feel free to shame me out of) and left it off.  So that's the glaring omission as I look at this list.  There's also a problem with figuring out where the "cultural folkloric" books end and the "religious" books begin, especially when trying to make a list for preschoolers.  African and Australian aboriginal religious beliefs disappear into the margins of that artificial divide.  We're beginning to read extensively in our library's folklore section, and I have to say, it's a great place to get picture books for older preschoolers.  Maybe someday I'll make a list just of creation myths.  Ah, more lists.

Try to pretend that the various problems with this list were really a clever tactical ruse, designed to spark heated debate.

Oh, yeah, it's also worth considering how the list might be re-worked for someone not living in a religiously observant home.  Would some of these books be less acessible for Lisa's family than for mine, since we take the Divine as a given?

Final note: I try to code my links to open in separate windows.  And yes, yes, I did Amazon instead of Powells.  I'm more comfortable messing with their search engines.  (And I have one of those little associate deals going, okay?  Fine.  Harumph.)

• All I see is part of me (pagan)
• Buddha Stories (Buddhist)
• Crazy Horse's Vision (19th century Lakota)
• Each Breath A Smile (Buddhist)
• Elephant Prince: The Story of Ganesh(Hindu)
• Every Day and Sunday, Too (Christian, especially the liturgical churches)
• The Hundredth Name (Islam / Ba'hai)
• I Once Was a Monkey : Stories Buddha Told (Buddhist)
• Lights for Gita (Hindu)
• Mother Earth (pagan)
• On Shabbat (Jewish)
• Parables: Stories Jesus Told (Christian)
• Ramadan (Islam)
• Sound the Shofar! : A Story for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (Jewish)
• Sunday Morning (Liturgical Christian - Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran)

The books in Barron's Festival Time Series look like they offer good basic intros, as well.

So, what to add?  What to protest against?  Throw some titles this way, please!

Comments

[Phantom Scribbler]

The Four Questions, by Lynne Sharon Schwartz, for the glorious illustrations by Ori Sherman. (Jewish, Passover.) He also illustrated a gorgeous book called The Creation, with text by Stephen Mitchell.

What a great idea to get books on the different religions. We've just been relying on Buster the endangered cartoon rabbit to teach these things. Did I mention that we watch too much tv in my house?

[Rosie]

Some of Patricia Polacco's books should be considered, your kids are probably just getting ready for them. Mrs. Katz and Tush shows the intersections between the Jewish world and the world of inner city African Americans, Just Plain Fancy brings an Amish/Mennonite view. There are others, but I'm not calling them to mind right now.

[Miriam]

Delurking to add that anything by Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso is good -- her theology is mostly broad and open but from a Jewish perspective, if that makes any sense. I think they're great for allowing kids to imagine the Divine for themselves...

[Madeleine]

Thanks for this interesting list -- I will have to check my library for them. I suggest:

In God's Name
by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, Phoebe Stone (Illustrator)
This is a beautiful book about the different names each person has for God, and the realization that they are all referring to the same God. The pictures are so thought provoking -- is that God standing in the corner? Holding the child's hand? Or is it a person carrying God's love?

From what you wrote about your children's questions as they read, this book could get them started. I had to smile with recognition at your comment on how sometimes we want them to ask lots of questions and sometimes we just want them to sit and listen!

Our family is Jewish and someone gave us a book of illustrated "Old Testament" stories. It works fine for us, as long as we excuse the title, through there are probably Jewish equivalents.

Here's a Jewish story we like, and it comes with a song (music on the back, if you can read it):
Bim and Bom: A Shabbat Tale
by Daniel J. Swartz, Shelly Schonebaum Ephraim (Illustrator)
You can see a couple of pages on Amazon. It is the story of two friends and how they work hard all week, do good deeds for others, and then celebrate Shabbat together. It's a stereotype-breaker, with the girl a carpenter and the boy a baker. Looking forward to other people's suggestions, too.

[momzom]

In our (Jewish) household, we like the Sammy Spider's First series. It's published by Kar-Ben, and Katharine Ross (I think) is either the author or illustrator. We're imperfectly Orthodox, but the series doesn't seem aimed at one denomination, which is nice.

We haven't thought of introducing our 3-year-old child in any formal way to other religions, which is especially odd given that my own family is Catholic and other varieties of Christian. My son knows that his grandmother (confusingly called by the yiddish nickname for Grandmother, "Bubbe,"--he'll sort it out later) and grandfather go to church. When he asks why, I say "Well, just like we go to shul, Bubbe goes to church to thank God for her blessings and ...." Plus we walk by several churches on our way to shul, so I point out that different people have different places to pray and talk to God. I do occasionally do a litany of "Some people go to shul, some people go to mosque, some people go to church, some people go to temple..." but that's as broadly ecumenical as I've gotten.

I wonder if people from minority religions are perhaps less likely to make it a point to expose their children to other religions. I think my husband and I feel, rather unreflectively, that we need to lay a strong foundation in our own out-of-the-mainstream (even for Jews) faith before we move along to other faiths. I want my child to learn his faith as a faith, and then move onto the more abstract idea of comparative religion when he's older. Knowing, of course, from my own experience, that there's no telling where all this education/indoctrination will lead him. I often joke that having an ex-Catholic mother who has made a strong commitment to having a particular kind of Jewish family and pursuing Jewish education pretty much guarantees that my child will become a Buddhist monk.

[Shevon]

"Do Jews and Christians buy the same picture books about Moses, Joseph, Jonah, and Daniel?"

Been in a lot of (Orthodox) Jewish households and I have *never* seen a children's book published by Christians in these households.
I wouldn't buy one. There are plenty of Jewish books for children.

[momzom]

One possible exception to Shevon's observations: My (Orthodox) Jewish household and a lot of the Orthodox households we visit have the book about Noah written by the woman who writes the Maisie books. And I think we got the book as a present at my son's bris. I think that characters like Jonah and Noah who are not, for Christians, in the messianic line, or who are not, for Jews, in the line of forefathers, law givers, history-advancers, are more likely to be "crossover" heroes. I hypothesize this based on the single Noah book in our collection. But Moses, David, and Joseph might be doing too much work in each tradition to be in contained, crossover kinds of stories. For us, the Moses story is firmly embedded in the "My first Passover" book, which goes into detail about the seder and the manish tanah, which are tradition specific. This is just my speculation.

[sarah]

Soundvision.com has a number of good books for kids on Islam. Take a look at their "syllabus/reading list" section which is broken out by grade level:
www.soundvision.com/shop/pbrowse.asp?cat=10007&age=5-7&o=

Some of the books are very lovely and give a nice idea of the basic principles of the religion and of how Muslims see and understand the world and their place in it.

The main thing you won't find are books that show pictorial representations of the prophets - since Islam, like traditional Judaism, avoids religious iconography (which is why maybe you didn't see picture books from the Koran?). Although the Koran refers to, and retells, many stories also told in the Old Testament, like Adam & Eve, Noah's ark, Moses & Pharoah, etc.

[Lisa C.]

This is a really good list. I agree that there is a real disparity in information about religion that are specifically aimed at children. Especially where we live. I will definitely look into many of these books as the kid gets older.

[suzoz]

We're an atheist household too. Religion only came up as a subject when my son started school aged five. Other kids would mention church or God. His best friend comes from a progressive Jewish family. Just the other day my son (6.5) told some friends of ours a detailed story about Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, which he had presumably learnt from his friend, as we've never exposed him to that.
Until he was around six, I didn't read him religious stories as I didn't feel he was able to distinguish between a story and the literal truth. He wasn't able to grasp the idea of people having different beliefs until very recently.
In our library I have found some photo-stories about various religious celebrations eg Passover, which feature young children and I find them a good way of showing him how religion/culture are interlinked in real people's lives.

[Mia C.]

But will any of the religious parents be discussing evolution and atheism with their children? I want to lay down an understanding of other religions and cultures for my son, but I have fears no one is doing the same for me.

[Ally]

Religion is something of an issue for us, we're both former Catholics and I at least still bear some emotional scars. I've been going off and on to a unitarian universalist church for years that has a great Sunday school/religious instruction program. I plan on going through the membership classes soon - I want Jamie to grow up inside a spiritual community as we did, but one that's open and honest and celebrates all faiths.

In that vein, I really like One Earth, One Spirit: A child'sbook of prayers from many faiths and cultures. Compiled by Tessa Strickland, a Sierra Club book for children.

[Elizabeth]

Momzom, I agree that as members of a minority religion, I haven't yet felt the need to go out of my way to expose my kids to different options. I spend enough energy trying to divert the strangers who feel compelled to ask my kids if they're excited about Santa.

Mia, I would respectfully suggest that the vast majority of people who consider themselves religious accept the scientific evidence for evolution. And yes, I'll tell my kids that not everyone believes in God and encourage them to make up their own minds.

[Mia C.]

Thanks Elizabeth. Believe or not, that actually makes me feel better. Living in the Midwest, atheism is practically a dirty word. Children said horrible things to me growing up. "You think you're descended from pigs!" "You're going to burn in hell!" Things like that are awful for a child.
Then you have things like politicians suggesting that atheists shouldn't be considered true Americans. But even with all that I want Baby C to make up his own mind and I want him to be able to know about many different cultures and religions.

[Mieke]

I had the same thought about Mia's comment. We are Jewish and also believe in evolution; the two ideas are not mutually exclusive.

I also like Where is God by Kushner which take a recontsructionist Jewish view on God, that God is in the flowers, the hugs, the ocean, etc...

It is important to me that my children not think of God as a bearded man in the clouds, since that can so easily be disproven. I want them to have a larger concept of what God is.

We also have books from most religions in our home, just as we try to have books that are not only about white people. We have many friends of color and different religion in our life; I want to ensure the boys read about more than what they are.

[SamChevre]

An absolutely awesome set of books about the Amish is "The Becky and Benji" books from Pathway Publishers. These are FUBU books, so they're not intended to be instructive--they're intended to be normal.

You can order them from Anabaptist Bookstore--search for Pathway. Pathway doesn't even have a phone, so they obviously have no direct web presence.

[Moxie]

Mia C, I just want to add another Christian voice saying many (if not most?) of us believe in evolution. (As my brother says, "Who do you think created the Big Bang?") For us it's infuriating that the non-evolutionists are getting so much press.

Thanks for this topic, Jody, and for all the info, everyone else.

[Mia C.]

I too have never understood why some people think evolution and religion are exclusive to one another, or why the idea God is responsible for evolution makes some people crazy. But then again, I live in Crazy, Midwest, where city leaders have voted to put a creation exhibit IN THE ZOO. Because there is a Hindu statue in the elephant museum. And a native American phrase elsewhere.
I have friends of many different religions, and they're all very open-minded and tolerant. But it doesn't seem to be the norm here.
And BTW, Moxie, you rock, baby!
While ironically, you also rock a baby.