I am a graduate student in English and the wife of a campus minister ... We have a baby boy who is 5 months old. We've been thinking about how to teach him about Jesus (of course) and I've been looking for children's books. I am having a difficult time finding good books for children, and I'm wondering if you might have any recommendations. Perhaps this could be a good post on the blog. Many of the books I find portray Jesus as a white man or assign stereotypical roles to women and men. I would also love to teach him to pray for children in poverty, and I can't seem to find any books on this!
So I contributed my $.02 -
I'm with you on the children's books thing. So many that I find (or have been given to me) are just awful. I've yet to find any good Jesus books for kids, but there are a number of decent spirituality books out there. Some of my favorites include -
The Lord's Prayer and The Twenty-third Psalm - by Tim Ladwig (uses the familiar words with fantastic artwork that portrays inner-city life)
and books from the Early Childhood Spirituality series like - Where is God?, What is God's Name?, and How Does God Make Things Happen? (most by Laurence Kushner or Sandy Eisenburg Sasso). These books are very multicultural and focus on love and grace. They have full picture books and board book varieties (a necessity with my toddler).
and (although they are not "Christian" - by label, not intent) I like the values taught in the Todd Parr line of books like The Peace Book and The Feelings Book. (Emma especially like the idea of peace being enough pizza in the world for everyone, she's two)
and I think they are out of print, but the allegorical stories in The Tales of the Kingdom series by David and Karen Mains have been a favorite of mine since I was a kid.
But I would love to find "bible" stories that aren't warped in some way. That don't change the story drastically to be suitable for kids, that don't reduce scripture to a plithy fable, or that don't teach individualistic "me" centered theology.
So I present the question here to the diverse community that meanders to this blog. What do you recommend?
Phyllis Tickle is coming out This Is What I Pray Today: Divine Hours Prayers For Children (Dutton, October 2007). I saw an advance copy because I interviewed her and was blown away. Also, I like Tomie dePaola's illustrations of bible stories.