Exploring Bad Days with Everything Will Be OK
Some days are just yucky. Things happen that children can’t control and don’t like. They might be little things,…
MorePosts tagged: Books
Exploring Fears with Bright Star
Fears are a part of childhood. Whether it’s worries about monsters under the bed, big dogs, loud noises, or parents…
MoreBooks for Earth Day
Americans have celebrated Earth Day since 1970, with other nations joining in beginning in 1990. The theme for 2023 is…
MoreTalking about Lockdown Drills with One Thursday Afternoon
Lockdown (Active Shooter) Drills have become a staple of children’s lives. Schools and organizations build them into…
MoreExploring A Million Views
My daughter loves creating videos. Lego movies inspire stop-action Lego shorts. Super Bowl halftime shows prompt…
MoreExploring Emotion with Crying is Like the Rain
Children’s feelings can shift and change rapidly. One minute a toddler is happily playing and the next they’re…
MoreUsing Books as Spiritual Mirrors & Windows
As a preschooler, my daughter loved Don and Audrey Wood’s The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big…
MoreExploring Loteria with Children
Daniel* wasn’t having much success lighting his campfire. Everything seemed stacked against him: too much wind, a…
MoreExploring People Are Wild with Children
“Do they bite?” asked Marcus* when we spotted a family of mule deer during a camping trip. Our group was excited…
MoreSpiritual Themes in The Door of No Return
Lessons about slavery in the United States typically begin with life on a plantation in the American South. This…
MoreExploring Emotions with The Coat
Hand-me-downs can be a dreaded necessity or longed-for acquisition. I remember being crestfallen when a neighbor passed…
MoreExploring Just Help! with Kids
How can children learn to build a better world? According to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the answer is in…
MoreExploring Community Justice with Unfadeable
In Unfadeable, Bella Fades is a fierce tween girl who loves her community and wants to see it thrive. Her strong belief…
MoreReading Small Town Pride With Kids
Small Town Pride stars a tween working to understand himself, change his community and gain autonomy over his own…
MoreExploring Miss Quinces
Summer can often be a time of celebrations and reunions as family members and friends travel to see one another. In Kat…
MoreTalking about Ukraine with I Hate Borsch
Earlier this month, UNESCO added borsch, the national soup of Ukraine, to its list of endangered cultural heritage…
MoreReading What Do You Do with a Chance?
Taking chances is risky. Some children can’t wait to explore the unknown. Others prefer familiar structures and…
MoreIdentity Discussions with Alice Austen Lived Here
Sam and TJ have learned a lot about ‘Dead Straight Cisgender White Men’ in history. So when they have to research a…
MoreExploring Magic Candies with Children
Imagine a bag of candies with the power to bring your sofa to life and give voice to falling leaves. Would you want to…
MoreReading Simon and the Big, Bad, Angry Beasts
Disney’s popular movie, Turning Red, has called attention to how children struggle with big emotions, especially…
MoreTaking Flight with The Year We Learned to Fly
Cultural and spiritual heritages are often passed on to new generations through stories and teachings by elders.…
MoreReading A Duet for Home
What can children do about a situation that seems unfair or unjust? How can they be allies? These are two of the…
MoreBooks for Earth Day
Every year on April 22, more than a billion people take time to reflect on the earth and its importance for human…
MoreExploring Ellen Outside the Lines
In their latest book, author A.J. Sass creates a neurodivergent main character (Ellen) who is negotiating changes in…
MoreChapter Book Spirituality with Preschoolers
When my children were babies, I would read aloud from whatever book I had at hand to sooth them when they were fussy.…
MoreExploring For Beautiful Black Boys Who Believe in a Better World
Like many parents, Michael W. Waters looked at his newborn son and thought him the most beautiful baby on earth. He…
MoreSpiritual ‘projects’ with Operation Sisterhood
Bo’s summer plans completely change when her mother moves into a Harlem brownstone with her fiance and another…
MoreBooks Celebrating Black Identity
Children’s spiritual well-being depends, in part, on strong self-esteem. They need to see themselves as individuals…
MoreSpiritual Storytelling with The Last Cuentista
For a book lover like me, one bedtime story often turned into two or three as I tucked my young children in. But I…
MoreExploring Where Wonder Grows
My dad collected rocks his whole life. He particularly liked geodes: rocks that - when broken open - contained a hidden…
MoreReading Fauja Singh Keeps Going
Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on the 3rd Monday in January reminds us that society needs strong leaders:…
MoreEnvironmental Justice for Preschoolers
As global leaders gather in Glasgow to discuss climate change, one message is clear: environmental justice isn’t just…
MoreReading The Proudest Blue
Wearing hijab is a spiritual statement for Muslim girls and women. It is a sign of faith and a practice of…
MoreChapter Books about Refugees & Asylum Seekers
Older children often wonder about the reasons refugees and asylum seekers have left their homelands. They are able to…
MoreChange Sings
Social change can be scary for children (and adults). Much of parenting young children involves teaching them to obey…
MorePicture Books about Refugees
With stories about refugees and immigrants frequently in the news, children are certain to wonder about why they’ve…
MoreWelcoming Afghan Refugees
Many of the refugees airlifted to the U.S. out of Afghanistan last month are currently housed at Fort Lee in Virginia,…
MoreSpiritual Story Books
My children love to read. From a young age, they knew that I would rarely deny their request to buy a book that caught…
More