2025 Blogging A to Z Challenge: Religion
While people may choose to worship in many different ways with many different types of holidays, festivals, and celebrations, the more I learn about the major holidays of the world, the more I’m reminded that we are more similar than we are different. And I think kids can benefit from learning about different religions around the world because it helps to encourage empathy and kindness.
Kids often ask some big questions and religion and philosophy have been trying to answer those questions for centuries. By encouraging kids to explore many religions, they may better be able to understand how their friends and peers make decisions, view the world, and just in general live their lives. Because I live in a fairly diverse community our school district just recently included both Diwali and Ramadan on the holiday schedule to join Christmas and many of the Jewish holidays as well.
This is a perfect opening to learn about how other families may celebrate a holiday that you are unfamiliar with. Learning about others is so important to helping kids become more kind and inclusive.
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2025 Blogging A to Z Challenge: Religion
Celebrating All Religions by Abby Colich
Our communities are stronger when we come together and take time to understand, support, and celebrate one another. In Celebrating All Religions, readers will learn the importance of acceptance and empathy as they relate to different religions and how to practice these in their daily lives. Early life skills and concepts support growth mindset throughout, while Grow with Goals activities and Mindfulness Exercises at the end of the book further reinforce the content. Vibrant, full-color photos and carefully leveled text engage young readers as they learn more about empathy and inclusion.
Hats of Faith by Medeia Cohan, illustrated by Sarah Walsh
Hats of Faith is a simple and striking introduction to the shared custom of religious head coverings. With bright images and a carefully researched interfaith text, this thoughtful book inspires understanding and celebrates our culturally diverse modern world.
The Kids Book of World Religions by Jennifer Glossop, illustrated by John Mantha
By gaining a greater understanding of the cultures and beliefs of people around the world, children build respect and tolerance for the differences that make each of us unique.With objectivity and accessibility, this title in the Kids Book of series looks at the histories, scriptures, places of worship, religious leaders, gods and major festivals that are the foundations of many of the world’s religions. Features a glossary and an index.
My Religion, Your Religion by Lisa Bullard, illustrated by Holli Conger
When David’s friend invites him to a service at a Jewish synagogue, David feels nervous. David is a Christian, and he’s only ever been to churches. But soon David discovers that learning about different religions is fun. How are religions similar? How are they different? What will David discover? A diverse cast gives multiple points of comparison.
Our Favorite Day of the Year by A. E. Ali, illustrated by Rahele Jomepour Bell
Musa’s feeling nervous about his first day of school. He’s not used to being away from home and he doesn’t know any of the other kids in his class. And when he meets classmates Moisés, Mo, and Kevin, Musa isn’t sure they’ll have much in common. But over the course of the year, the four boys learn more about each other, the holidays they celebrate, their favorite foods, and what they like about school. The more they share with each other, the closer they become, until Musa can’t imagine any better friends.
In this charming story of friendship and celebrating differences, young readers can discover how entering a new friendship with an open mind and sharing parts of yourself brings people together. And the calendar of holidays at the end of the book will delight children as they identify special events they can celebrate with friends throughout the year.
Philosophy: A Visual Encyclopedia
Thousands of years ago, ancient philosophers asked some important questions: “What is real?”, “What is the point of my existence?”, “Why is there evil in the world?”, and “What can I know?” These questions have gone on to spark passionate debates about our existence and how we understand the world around us.
In this engaging and accessible introduction to philosophy, readers aged 11+ will be introduced to a variety of philosophical ideas through the teachings of Plato, Confucius, Simone de Beauvoir, and many more.
Vibrant, reader-friendly illustrations bring the history of ideas and thinking to life, and provide topics for reflection and debate. With biographies of the most influential philosophers from around the world, young readers will explore the questions that have been fundamental to the development of scientific study, logical thinking, religious beliefs, freedom in society, and much more. Thought experiments peppered throughout will help to connect readers with the theories presented so they can apply them to their own lives.
Religion Around the World: A Curious Kid’s Guide to the World’s Great Faiths by Sonja Hagander, Matthew Maruggi, and Megan Borgert-Spaniol, illustrated by Chester Bentley
Religion around the World: A Curious Kid’s Guide to the World’s Great Faiths explores the world’s major faiths, making the traditions, beliefs, practices, and history of each accessible to kids ages 8-12. This visually compelling book presents each religion as a rich tradition that has served as a force for human connection and good in the world. Colorful illustrations, charts, graphs, maps, and other infographics, along with clear, age-appropriate text, make this an appealing book for browsing, research, and learning.
See Inside World Religions by Alex Frith
An insightful look at the beliefs, history and customs of the major world religions. With over 70 flaps to lift, readers can discover key facts about each religion, differing ideas about God, worship and prayer and colourful festivals and celebrations. Includes internet links to websites with video clips that bring each religion to life.
We Celebrate the Light by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple, illustrated by Jieting Chen
Diwali, Solstice, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Bodhi Day, and Lunar New Year are visually depicted in turn, accompanying a stunning, read-aloud text that speaks of the traditions that link them all together. The warm yet accurate imagery is explained in simple secondary text on each spread, and further in the backmatter. Beloved author Jane Yolen and daughter, author Heidi Stemple, have crafted a loving and poignant story with true reverence for our shared traditions of celebrating light, love, food, and family. An empowering, informative, and inclusive holiday book for families of all traditions.
What Do You Believe?: Big Questions About Religion
What Do You Believe? is a perfect introduction to all the main faiths, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The book traces the history of different religions and faiths around the world and deconstructs complex topics into easy-to-consume sections.
From the oldest beliefs to new religious movements and modern spirituality, What Do You Believe? presents the facts in an unbiased way. Learn about different scriptures, know about places of worship, and find out why followers of some religions eat certain foods and wear specific clothes.
What Do You Celebrate?: Holidays and Festivals Around the World by Whitney Stewart, illustrated by Christiane Engel
Across the globe, every country has its special holidays. From Brazilian carnival and Chinese New Year to France’s Bastille Day and our very own Fourth of July, What Do You Celebrate? presents 14 special occasions where people dance, dress up, eat yummy foods, and enjoy other fun traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation. Kids can travel the globe and learn about Fastelavn, Purim, the Cherry Blossom Festival, Holi, Eid al-Fitr, Halloween, Day of the Dead, Guy Fawkes Day, the German Lantern Festival, and more. Each spread showcases a different holiday, offering background and cultural context, vocabulary words, photographs, and instructions for festive projects.
Who Believes What? by Anna Wills, illustrated by Nora Tomm
In today’s multicultural cities and interconnected world, understanding different belief systems can help kids appreciate the differences of people they see every day, or people who live on the other side of the globe. This book introduces readers to the five major world religions by population: Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.
Each mini-section opens with a fully illustrated spread representing one religion. Designed in a search-and-find style, the illustrated spreads are busy, bright, and jam-packed with details that show people worshipping among symbolic places, rituals, and objects. A text spread follows, pulling out details from the illustrated page and providing further information about the history, festivals, places of worship, celebrations, religious leaders, and gods of each religion.
Front matter gives broader overall context about religion and each featured belief system, making this a comprehensive go-to resource for introducing religion and global cultures.
2025 is my tenth year participating in the Blogging A to Z Challenge! This year, I chose as my theme: Fact Finders Club: Nonfiction for Curious Kids with a focus on providing book lists focused on all types of nonfiction books for readers from birth to teens. Each letter of the alphabet will focus on different topics and will provide twelve titles on each list. Nonfiction is having a heyday in children’s literature and if you think it’s dry and boring, then I implore you to take a look at these amazing suggestions! Stop by daily to check out the new books and other posts that I’ll be sharing in April.
