Nurturing Child and Adolescent Spirituality: Perspectives from the World's Religious Traditions provides a forum for prominent religious scholars to examine the state of religious knowledge and theological reflection on spiritual development in childhood and adolescence. Featuring essays from thinkers representing the world's major religious traditions, the book introduces new voices, challenges assumptions, raises new questions, and broadens the base of knowledge and investment in this im...

Provide comforting reassurance for a child experiencing nighttime fears and anxieties.In this creative retelling of Psalm 23, a child imagines scary shadows chasing away her sleep and peace as she reaches out to God her Comforter. Gently and imaginatively written, this story about being afraid of the dark brings the psalmist's words into a new and relatable light for children.Backmatter includes background information about Psalm 23 and encouragement and practical tips for ...

A Guide for Jewish and Christian Educators and ParentsChildren speak about God in ways that are different from adults. They ask many questions about God, questions that can be startlingly direct. Oftentimes adultsparents, grandparents, and teachersfeel uncomfortable answering them.Through fantasy, involvement, and imagination, Sandy Sasso and Annette Compton invite children of all faiths and backgrounds to encounter God openly through moments in their own livesand help the adu...

Water and oil, light and dark, summer rain and desert wind: In this fable of opposites, award-winning author Sandy Eisenberg Sasso shows children and adults of all faiths and backgrounds how self-centered actions affect the people around us, and how by working together we can work with God—to create a better world.

When God tells Noah to bring the animals of the world onto the ark, God also calls on Naamah, Noah's wife, to save each plant on earth. In this new story, based on an ancient text, Naamah's wisdom and love for the natural harmony of the earth inspires us to use our own courage, creativity and faith to carry out Naamah's work today.

The Rabbis of old believed that the Torah was divinely revealed and therefore contained eternal, perfect truths and hidden meaning that required elucidation. The meaning of a text was more complicated than simply reading it. And meaning changed over time. This understanding of how the Bible mystically relates to all of life is the fertile ground from which midrash emerged. "The rabbis believed that nothing in the Bible, not the choice of words or their spellings, not the order of events or...

The townspeople have mezuzahs but cannot agree on how to put them up on their doorways. To end their arguing, they consult the wise rabbi of the town, who advises them to carefully read the Shema in the mezuzah to find the answer.

Poor and: the word everyone takes for granted. So tiny, so common, so easily overlooked. Yet if it weren't for and, so much would fall apart! Who knew such a little word could make such a big difference?When an array of opinionated shapes just can't find common ground, AND comes to the rescue. AND is the link that helps each pair of shapes overcome their differences, teaming up to create something entirely new. Bouncy rhyming text and colorful paintings come toget...

Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage offers a treasury of tales that speak to the tenderness and passion, difficulties and blessings of love. Jewish tradition overflows with love stories from the Bible, Talmud, and Midrash. Folktales continue the tradition, and contemporary writers highlight the way their faith and love interweave and enrich each other.From Adam and Eve to Song of Songs, from legends of Solomon to the letters of Alfred and Lucie Dreyfus, these are stories of heartbr...

From the snake in the Garden of Eden to the lost sheep in Luke's parable, stories about fish and birds, rams and goats abound. We read about them, but they have no voice of their own. Here we allow the raven and the dove on Noah's ark, the big fish that swallowed Jonah, and the donkey on which Balaam rode, to be the narrators of their own stories, to inform us and help us to re-imagine our stories. We learn something about the intrinsic value of all living beings, and something about ourse...

This is the magical, mythical tale of a poor village at the foot of a hill—a topsy-turvy town with no roads and no windows, where the people sneeze through tall tangled weeds and trip over rocks as big as watermelons. Surely God would help them, they decide . . . but how can God be found, and where should they look? They soon find that the answer is much nearer than they thought. This story teaches that God can be found where we are: within all of us and the relationships between us.

Award-winning author Sandy Eisenberg Sasso recasts the biblical tale of Cain and Abel in a way that invites adults and kids to a conversation about anger and our power to deal with it in a positive way.