Talking to God: Prayers for Children from the World’s Religions

This book is a lovely compendium of some of the most famous prayers from several religions in the world, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, but also less-than-mainstream religions such as Central African, American Indian, and so forth. Almost all the prayers are beautifully illustrated as well, with drawings simple yet colorful and meaningful. An appendix at the end contains notes on both the prayers and the illustration. I tried to have my seven-year-old boy read the prayers, and I was not successful. I had a bit more of a success by reading the appendix so that he could understand more about what is behind the prayers and what the illustrations represent. Which brings me to my only point of criticism: although it is marked as “four and up,” I really do not think children can find it enticing until a much, much later age, if any. The language of the prayers is often poetic and very old-fashioned, and that does not help. I would have loved to see a book explaining what’s behind each religion (maybe just based on the comments in the appendix) in terms children can understand.