Customer Reviews

Many Ways: How Families Practice Their Beliefs and Religions (Shelley Rotner's Early Childhood Library)

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I bought this book because my almost-6-year-old has recently become very interested in Christianity. We do not practice any religion in our home but our children attend a Christian daycare. We want them to understand that there are many other ways of thinking besides Christianity. The book arrived yesterday and my child's opinion was something like "It has nice pictures but it doesn't tell much." She's right. Beautiful illustrations, but practically no content that will help her learn about the religions of the world. We'll keep looking...

Great book to show the array of religions that kids may come across with excellent photos showing families while they observe or pray. I liked the dominance of photos over words.

In about thirty pages, Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly build thirty bridges between six of the major religions of the world. In their introduction, the authors state their intention for the book: "This book is a modest attempt to help young children become aware of the diversity in spiritual traditions and of similarities between their families and those whose faith-based traditions and practices differ from their own." This beautiful book certainly succeeds. It gives children of all faiths a glimpse into the commonalities and differences between their own religion and that of their playmates and classmates. The common threads of prayer, places of worship, stories and sayings of great teachers, sacred scriptures, unique symbols, special music and holidays with special foods are interwoven through the use of beautiful pictures depicting children practicing each faith with their families.
The pictures that appear on each page are captioned and explained in more detail in an information section at the back of the book. This gives parents more detail they can use to explain to their child what they are seeing in the photographs. A list of further reading in the back gives additional sources to use to learn more about the faiths represented.
This is a wonderful book for parents to use to introduce children to a non-judgmental and respectful approach to learning about other religions as well as their own. Children learn, in a few simple words they can easily understand, about the activities children pursue together in play and going to school. They learn that families of other faiths celebrate in their own way the important times of life and rites of passage that we all mark, such as coming of age, weddings and births just as their family does. The book teaches that the beauty of the earth is enjoyed and celebrated by all people of all faiths. Most important, it reveals that all of the great teachers of all the religions have taught the same lesson: Love and care for one another.

This book has excellent photographs from a good variety of religious practices. I just used it in my kindergarten/1st grade sunday school class. I asked the children questions about their church and what a picture from their church would look like on the page. Highly recommended.