A Holy Troublemaking Gift Guide
Books have always been one of my favorite presents to get and to give, so I thought I’d put together a short gift guide of progressive, faith-based children’s books.
One of the main reasons why I wrote Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints, was to help add back to our bookshelf of faith-based children’s books when almost all of the ones I’d grown up with were no longer books I could read with my children. I wanted my children to feel good about themselves and their created-in-the-image-of-Divineness when they finished a book. I cared about a loving, fully inclusive view of the Divine, an ethic of nonviolence, an expansive sense of gender for the Divine, and especially books that help us envision the world that can be, a world where people of faith work for the common good of us all.
Here are a few books that I happily read with my children that would make excellent gifts. All of these authors have other books too, so I hope this is just a jumping off point. (I’m going to do a separate post just on children’s bibles at some point, so those aren’t in this list.)
1) God’s Dream by Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Lovely and ecumenical message about how God’s dream is for God’s children to love and respect each other.
2) Preaching to the Chickens by Jabari Asim: A great way to get to know the good and holy troublemaker, the late Rep. John Lewis through his love for his childhood chickens and the Gospel that he preached to them that motivated his life’s work.
3) Maybe God Is Like That by Jennifer Grant: Simple and approachable way to talk about the fruits of the Spirit and how God is present wherever we see love, kindness, patience, and joy.
4) The Girl God Trilogy by Trista Hendren: Powerful and much-needed books that help recenter the Divine in feminine form.
5) Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints by Daneen Akers: For middle grades, an anthology with original portraits and profiles of people of diverse faiths who rocked the religious boat on behalf of love and justice.
6) Picturing God by Ruth Goring: A collage-style art book helping to imagine many of the metaphors given for God, including God as a Mother Hen protecting Her chicks.
7) The Three Questions by Jon Muth: A lovely re-telling of a Tolstoy tale about what is most important with his brilliant watercolors.
8) Old Turtle by Douglas Wood: A classic that is always a good addition to any library with an expansive view of the Divine.
9) The Very Best Day by Roger Hutchinson: A gentle and lovely book about the Way of Love.
10) Grit & Grace (and Gritty & Graceful) by Caryn Dahlstrand Rivadeneira: Fantastic chapter book focused on women and girls of the bible.
11) When God Was a Little Girl by David Weiss: An absolutely delightful book that imagines creation through a young girl creating art.
12) A Church for All by Gayle Pitman: Modeled on a church I love in San Francisco, this book casts a vision of church as it should be.
13) When God Made the World by Matthew Paul Turner: A phenomenal book in rhyme about creation that celebrates the uniqueness of each human and leaves space for those of us who also appreciate science.
14) Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: Edited by Leigh Finke, foreward by Jennifer Knapp: A new devotional from several queer-identifying authors specifically meant to help LGBTQ teens know they are loved and brilliant images of the Divine just as they are.
15) What is God’s Name by Rabbi Sandy Sasso: Another classic that stayed on my bookshelf during my faith shift when almost no other faith-based children’s book did, like all of Rabbi Sasso’s beautiful and ecumenical books.