I’m looking for children’s picture books about non-Christian holidays. I want the holidays to be a part of the story, but I’m hoping to find books where the story has more to it than imparting information about the particular holiday. I want to read the books to my kids and I want characters and stories they can identify with as well as learning about holidays. Hannukkah and Kwanzaa are obvious holiday choices, but I want less obvious ones as well. I’d love to find books about Ramadan, the Day of the Dead, Solstice, Mardi Gras, Chinese New Year, Eid Al Fatr, etc.
If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.
Thanks
Edit: It has been pointed out to me that the Day of the Dead is in fact celebrated by Christian people and can therefore be counted as a Christian holiday. This is an excellent point. Another good point is that just because the holiday goes by the same name, the manner of celebration may be very different. So I’m broadening the request. I’ll welcome any holiday book suggestions.
Thanks again.
Shanté Keys and the New Year’s Peas is at least sort of like what you’re talking about. My daughter and I checked it out of the library the other day–it’s pretty cute. It’s about a little girl who’s trying to find some black-eyed peas for her family’s New Years celebration, and talks to a bunch of other people who have different new years traditions. Here’s the Amazon link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Shant%C3%A9-Keys-New-Years-Peas/dp/0807573302
Day of the Dead is the only one that I can recommend off the top of my head. Also, however, I have a really hard time not thinking of it as a Christian holiday, being as the only people I personally know who celebrate it (well, past eating candy skulls and drinking) are my VERY Catholic relatives…
http://www.amazon.com/Day-Dead-Tony-Johnston/dp/0152024468
Good point. Just because my brand of Christianity doesn’t celebrate it, does not mean that a particular holiday is “non-Christian.” I’ll amend my post to reflect this. Thanks for the suggestion.
Thanks for the suggestion and link.
Our RiF coordinator suggests the following books:
“Its Pumpkin Time” by Zoe Hall and “Magid fast for Ramadan” by Mary Matthews. Those are the ones she thought of first. She’s going to get back to me on some others.
I’m not sure about picture books, but I know that lutherans have a sub-holiday sort of thing on top of christmas. Advent Calendars. Either 24 little sayings behind flaps, or sometimes 24 tiny boxes with small presents in them. *shrug* Not sure if this helps or not. (My wife’s family was lutheran.)
My grandma is Lutheran, and they always have a Maundy Thursday (unsure of the spelling) service before Good Friday, I believe. I had never heard of it before dating a Lutheran boy who went to the same church.
The advent calendar is a countdown to Christmas.
Also, this is the kind of thing that children’s book listservs love–they love to make lists. You might check out Child_Lit (google it, as I never remember where to sign up for it) and ask the question on the listserv, requesting they email you off-list. If you say you’ll post the list to the listserv later they’ll love you even more.
Cool. Thanks!
I’ll have to check that out. Thanks!