Faith

by Maya Ajmera, Cynthia Pon, Magda Nakassis

Families around the world celebrate faith in many different ways—through praying, singing, learning, helping, caring, and more. With stunning photographs from many cultures and religious traditions, Faith celebrates the ways in which people worship around the globe .

Thematically organized back matter gives additional information on common expressions of faith, and a glossary describes particular religions and elements of faith depicted in the book.

A portion of the proceeds from the sales of this book helps support The Global Fund for Children’s grantmaking to community-based projects serving vulnerable children around the world.

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Cultural, Childrens, Religion, Faith, Prayer

48 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2009

About the author

Maya Ajmera is the founder of The Global Fund for Children. She is the co-author of several Global Fund for Children books, including FAITH, GLOBAL BABIES, CHILDREN OF THE U.S.A., and CHILDREN FROM AUSTRALIA TO ZIMBABWE.

Reviews

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Faith by Maya Ajmera

With simple text and lots of photographs, Faith shows ways that people of many religions around the world practice their faith. The photographs have short captions that explain the common practices of religions. The common practices include helping others, visiting holy places, reading holy books, singing, celebrating with festivals, and caring for others.

These practices are examined in more detail in the back of the book. The book also includes a glossary.

A taste of Faith:

Main text: "We listen to and learn from others."
Captions: "Listening attentively at a madrasa, or Islamic religious school. Indonesia"
"Children focus on the words of a priest. United States"
"A father teaches his son to sound the shofar at solemn Jewish feasts. United States"

[jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book for showing kids MANY different religions, and how people celebrate them. It also shows how people with different faiths can be friends and share.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent easy reader multicultural look at religion.

[Iza Alcorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book that introduces and shows different religions around the globe. What help this picture book stand out is the plot being descriptive as well as keep the reader interested about the different religions being shared. As a reader, You get to learn and comprehend the various religions in our world. Throughout the book, it discusses traditions and faiths it included: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Daoism, and many more. When looking at each picture, you can see different cultures practicing their religion as well as religious traditions. The book does an amazing job using pictures because it helps the reader connect religions to specific traditions. I would use this on my classroom to explore the different faiths and religions but not as in depth. I would use this book to celebrate cultures and teach my students about the variety of people in the world. In conclusion, This book is an amazing idea and very educational and I have no critiques.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely book! It introduces people of faith around the world based on what they have in common: praying, chanting and singing, reading holy books, listening and learning, cleansing, holy places, holidays and festivals, marking important events, religious clothing, food and drink, caring for and helping others, etc. The book features actual photographs of children practicing their various faiths. This would be a great way to both learn about other religions, and also a great discussion starter about how your religion practices these things. To that end, it would be fun to take pictures of your family members practicing their faith and insert them between the corresponding pages of your family’s copy of the book.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something I have learned about myself -- I'm a sucker for excellent photography. This book definitely has that -- wonderful pictures of children responding to their faith, illustrating praying, meditating, worshiping, celebrating, or whatever else the text describes. Honestly I know there were words and they were useful, but this book is about the photos. I remember the labels of the pictures more than the text, and there's a wide selection from all over the world.

The back matter and glossary give definitions of the religions and terms used, which is helpful. I do with that Native American rituals had more specificity -- what tribes or nations were depicted?

[L · Rating 3 out of 5]

So close to great, but a bummer that it isn't inclusive of the nonreligious.

[Sandra Mendoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faith is an incredible picture book that focuses on how different religions celebrate the ways in which people worship around the world. Even though each religion is uniquely different, they all share similar qualities. Throughout the story, the book demonstrates how each religion has its own way of practicing faith. The book shows photographs of children from various cultures practicing their faiths by reading their holy books. This element of the story gives an overview of the worship places and how the different religions are put into practice. Each picture includes a description and the type of religion that is being practiced. At the end of the book, the authors provide a reference section with detailed information about the elements of faith. The reference section also defines the key words used throughout the book. This book can be very helpful for teachers to use when teaching children about the different cultures around the world and multicultural literature in general. It can also be a great tool to teach students that everyone has different beliefs and values but we should always be mindful and have respect towards one another. As future teachers, we may have students who dress up differently due to their religion, and we can use this book to give a lesson about why people dress up the way they do, so that students can be more open minded and knowledgeable about their surroundings.

[Lacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This piece showcases the ways in which individuals around the world practice their faith. With diverse photographs from a number of nations, readers explore how people of varying religions pray, celebrate, and display their beliefs. The book includes minimal text, the majority of which serves at captions for the pictures on each page. The book also includes informational paragraphs and a glossary at the end of the book with more informational text, defining terms and providing more detail for the glimpses given in the pieces.
I think using this book in many schools might be tricky, as so many districts seem to prefer not to talk about faith at all. I think this book would be a fantastic addition to classroom for the younger grades, especially in a particularly diverse classroom. The only weakness I found with the book is that in it's quest to include so many various faiths, each glimpse is so vague that I did not learn a whole lot about the particulars of each faith. While a glossary is included, that type of text does not match the type of reader that would work for the minimal text throughout the rest of the book. For this reason, I think that this book would be better suited for a class that is diverse in religious affiliation, so that the children's background knowledge may be more complete.

[Madison Niksich]

Ajmera, M., & Nakassis, M. (2009). Faith. Watertown, Massachusetts: Charlesbridge.

Although few words, this powerful book explores children of different religions. The book connects the similarities between the different religions. the book is mostly told through pictures, which contain children praying, worshiping, washing, and exploring their specific religious practices. The pictures are also captioned with what the religion is and where the picture was taken. This is a religious, cultural exploration for readers and provides them with the understanding of other religious practices around the world. The words in this book refer to the people of the different religions as “we”, helping unite us all as a whole. Another strength of this book is having only children in the pictures, helping young readers understand that kids their age participate in many different religious practices and that even though they believe something else, they really are not that different from each other. There are very few weaknesses to this book, the only weakness that was visibly evident, was the fact that young children might have a hard time understanding the religious words in this novel without prior knowledge. Although a touchy subject in school, teachers may use this book to explain to children how to accept one another for their differences, leading into a diversity unit.

[Tim Snell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: Informative
Copyright: 2009

"Faith" is a great way to introduce different religions to people of all ages. With big bright easy to read text, the book is laid out like a basic children's picture book, yet with stunning photography and accompanying captions, even a veteran reader can gain something from this book. Also, the last few pages of the book have information regarding different religions and are very detailed. There is even a glossary that helps explain terms that some readers may not be familiar with.

Like I stated earlier, the photographs in this book are stunning! Almost all of the photographs are of children practicing their faith. With pictures taken in over 25 countries, many of the dominant religions are portrayed throughout the book. This book is not trying to "sell" religion to anyone. Its purpose is to show the beautiful diversity that our world has to offer. The book states a central theme in which no matter what religion you belong to, we all follow a common path in that we all hope.

This book offers basic insight to many of the world's religions. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to have an introductory lesson to religion, or to any teacher hoping to teach diversity to their classroom.

[Angel Romero · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book, Faith, is a picture book written by Maya Ajmera, Magda Nakassis, Cynthia talks about the different faith around the word and how they celebrate it. The book uses pictures to give an overview of the worship places and how the different religions are put into practice. Additionally, each picture has a description of it and the type of religion is projected in it, too. The book also uses words to describe the pictures within each page. The books shows how similar the religions are. Towards the end of the book, the authors gave a detailed information about the elements of faith. It also defines the key words used throughout the book. This book can be very helpful for teacher to use when teaching children about the different cultures around the world and multicultural literature. It can also be a great tool to teach students that there are people who have different beliefs and we all have to respect each other because that does not makes us any different, we are all human beings. Also, as a teacher may have students who dress up differently due to their religion, and we can use this book to give a lesson about why people dress up the way they do, so that students have more knowledge about it.

[Cory Schulz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faith is about faith throughout the world. On each page there is different aspect of religion and it shows pictures of how each religion share the aspects. Every page has actual real life pictures of all the different religion of the world. Under each of the pictures it gives a description of the religion, what the child is doing, and what part of the world the religion takes place in. This book shows the similarity of religion because most people only sees the differences in them. This book can help people gain understanding for other religion and why they aren't so different. The minority of this book is any religion that is not based in the United States. The United States was founded on immigrants and it is stupid that people judge someone that has a different religion that migrated just like us to this wonderful country. This books shows only similarities so it makes people double check what they believe. The whole book is phrased in “we” steatments. Which means that they are talking about religion in general which categorizes them in one group. People are scared of people with different religions because they only see the difference when they should be celebrating the similarities.

[Danielle Rhea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faith was a beautifully made book for children. This book was actually informative for me. It showed so many different practices of religion that I have never seen before. The real photos spread throughout the book was a different kind of children’s book to read, but actually so cool to have. The entire book was pretty simple text wise, but the photos are what made the book. The words and photos went really well together. I think if it had heavy text it would have been too much for the reader. The photos sufficed and showed the reader what religions would look like in other countries. It connected different types of people with others and that was beautiful. The incorporation and acceptance of multiple faiths is what drew me in. I believe people aren’t educated enough about the people and faiths around them. The real photos can show the reader what it looks like and they can compare their own faith to the one in the photos and see the amazing differences and the similarities a person could have with another person. This book really brings people together and informs them on these things. Loved the messages and photos throughout the book, would high recommend for any age and any classroom!

[John Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Faith is one of the first multicultural books I read, and was also one of the best. I enjoy reading about different religions, and this book illustrates the similarities between many of the most popular ones. While being a very easy book to read, Faith carries a powerful message that encourages readers to reflect. The authors bring up numerous examples of actions or characteristics that different religious faiths share. A Christian child who reads this book, and who only knows about his church and his religion, can see that followers of other religions do the same types of things; they pray, they sing, and they study sacred texts, too. So this book allows readers to reflect not just on their own faith, but on how that faith compares to others. This can help expel ignorance, and encourage compassion and understanding across the many spiritual groups that exist in the world today. I'm not sure how this book would be used in the classroom, due to the religious information it provides, but if possible, Faith would be an excellent book to use for teaching reading skills and cultural awareness.

[Courtney Schlenker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Faith by Maya Ajmera, Magda Nakassis, and Cynthia Pon is a children’s book about the different Faiths that are the minority in the United States. The book gives a nice introduction to the spiritual practices around the world and shows children that there are many ways to express religious faith. They focus on the common factors and elements of the faiths and explain what they show in common like praying, reading the holy books, cleansing rituals, and visiting the holy places. The last few pages of the book talk about the elements of faith in more detail and there is a world map showing the different countries that the pictures are from.
I like that this book uses pictures to explore and explain the different cultures around the world. You can always get more information about people and places by pictures and what is included in the image. The information included is beneficial when explaining the different parts that are involved in each culture and their importance. I would like to know how long the authors spent at the different locations when getting pictures for the book and if they were able to experience the cultures to get a real feel each culture.

[Kelsey]

Faith explores the many religions around the world and explains how they are all very similar. The book will describe how religions read from holy books and will contain pictures of children from different religions reading their holy books. The pictures in this book contain children from all around the world practicing religion. In the end of the book, their are many terms and definitions that help readers become knowledgable about many kinds of religions. This book uses precise vocabulary; it doesn't water anything down. Instead it gives a term, such as rosary, and gives a definition of what it is as well as picture of a child using a rosary in prayer. This book is controversial to have in schools because it's topic is religion and their is a law about seperation of church and state. However, this book is written to inform children of the religions that are out there in the world, without making them choose a side. In the classroom we can have students group up and explore one religion that they will research and present to the rest of the class.
Ajmera, M., & Nakassis, M. (2009). Faith. Watertown, Massachusetts: Charlesbridge.

[Grace Karney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faith showed families from all around the world celebrating their religion in different ways. There are very few words throughout this powerful story. Photographs are the main focus point on each page, and allowed the reader to visualize the various ways people from all over the globe worship. This book connected the similarities between multiple religions, and featured children washing, praying, and practicing ways specific to their faith. Each individual picture has a caption containing what religion the child is practicing and where it was taken. The very end contained pages with the different elements of faith and a words to know section. There was also a world map that showed the places each of the children depicted in the story lived. The book proved to be a cultural exploration for readers, and provided a better understanding of different ways of worship around the world. Multiple religions were highlighted, allowing the reader to examine multiple other beliefs. I myself grew up in the Catholic Church, and only know much about Christianity. This book allowed me to catch a glimpse of other beliefs.

[Jennifer Varela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faith by Maya Ajmera is the perfect way to introduce the world of religion to children. The fact that multiple religions and faiths are outlined in this book allows the reader to explore others believes. I also love that you can tell the author isn’t biased due to the extensive information from each and every religion covered in the text. The photographs show how each group of people celebrate their faith. Some dance and pray while others silently prayed. It was really captivating and heartwarming to see all these photographs because you honestly can’t help but smile. Under each picture there’s usually a quote or description about the religion and explaining what the person in the picture is doing. The message I got from reading this book is that there’s a lot of similarities in between religions and not just differences which is what usually is highlighted by society. It’d be fun to share this with my future classroom and then make a chart of all the similarities between all the religions.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does a really good job explaining religions and faith in a child friendly way. It is informational about a variety of religions. It's not biased nor does it focus on one particular religion more than the others. I really liked how there are lots of pictures on each page as examples and how each picture has a caption that explains a little about what is going on in that particular image.

I probably wouldn't read this book aloud to a class unless it was necessary. I can see there possibly being a time when kids are discussing their religions during free time, and I can see where that could very easily create an intense environment. I would then read this book to show the kids that there are lots of religions in the world and not everyone worships the same way or the same thing. It is a matter of what an individual believes and feels is right. Not matter what our individual opinions may be, we should all respect one another no matter what our religious status is.

[Julianne Frye · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting children's book that tells about different aspects of faiths around the world. It tells about the many ways that people around the world celebrate their faiths, such as: praying, singing, reading holy books, learning from others, cleansing ourselves, visiting holy places, observing holidays, caring for those around us, respecting others, etc. On each page it shows children of different faiths, such as: Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist, and they also tell which country the children are from. I like this book because it uses real photographs of children that are very detailed and show them in action. In the back there is map of the world that shows where the children featured in the book are from. There are also more detailed descriptions of each religion and some of the traditions in the back. This would be a great book for children who are curious about other religions around the world.

[Suzanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is unique because it does not just focus on one culture, but on many. The book demonstrates the different ways that people all over the globe practice their own religions. It is a great way to introduce children to a variety of different religions. It shows how people all over the world are different, but they still have some things in common, like having faith. The photographs in the book give kids a clear idea of how people practice their religion. One thing that was particularly helpful in this book, was that it provides additional information on certain religions in the back of the book, along with a glossary of words. This could be used to go in to more depth about religion after introducing the topic. This book is a great introduction to diversity for all ages. It is easy for young children to understand, and also has information that is unknown to older kids as well. One thing that could make the book a little better is if it was somehow told in a story form.

[Mallori Allphin]

Faith is an incredible children’s story that focuses on different religions from around the world and shows how even though they are different they all share the same qualities. This book touches on how each religion has their own unique form of worship, religious text, dress, rituals, food, holidays, etc. while centering on the fact that each religion has them, making them similar. The illustrations in this book are photographs, and each one depicts different aspects of the various religions and has text labeling each culture that is representing the religion. This story is a great introduction for children. It is important for students to know that not all religions are the same and it is great for diversity. Diversity should not be frowned upon. Students should encourage change and uniqueness. Lessons could be planned and students could study a religion that they are not familiar with and share what they have learned with the class.

[Sara Shelton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book, “Faith” by Maya Ajmera is a wonderful multicultural book that shows the different types of religions around the world. It is a very important book because it shows that even though many religions are different they share many of the same qualities. As readers we see many unique forms of worship such as festivals, attire, and holy texts. Through these unique illustrations from around the world we are able to see that even though things may appear to be different many values are similar. I believe that this book could be used in a classroom setting because any student who picks it will learn a great deal about diversity and the world around them. There is section in the back of the book that is a glossary of “words to know” which could be helpful to those who are eager to learn more about other cultures. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about multicultural literature.

[Brenda Lopez]

Brief Summary: The book centers around the different faiths around the word and how it's celebrated. The book uses pictures to give an overview of the worship places and how the different religions are put into practice.
Critique: The book also uses words to describe the pictures within each page. The books shows how similar the religions are. Towards the end of the book, the authors gave a detailed information about the elements of faith. It also defines the key words used throughout the book which I believe are extremely important because students are not aware of all religions. I can see how this book can be controversial with staff or parents, however, I think it's an important issue it address geared towards our students.
Themes: Religion
Usefulness in Classroom: Religion can be a touchy subject, I would have this book in my library and let students explore it by themselves because I wouldn't want to feel like I'm obligating them to read about different religions.

[Danielle Brill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Faith by Maya Ajmera is a non fiction children's book that talks about the many similarities between religions, primarily through photographs. On each page there is one similarity, such as “we pray.” The text is surrounded by beautiful pictures of people showing or giving examples of what the text says. Many religions are represented by the photos giving children a look into different cultures and traditions. At the end of the book there is a glossary listing important terms and objects in each religion. Additionally there is a map of all the countries around the world that have been represented or photographed. When people are presented with the opportunity to learn about those different than them ignorance and hate are diminished. This makes Faith an important book to teach and read in the classroom.

[Maddie Sharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faith by Maya Ajmera is set up in a very intriguing way with few words and a multitude of photographs. Throughout the book we see how families all around the world celebrate their faith, whether that’s through praying, singing, learning, helping, caring, and many more. Ajmera takes the reader around the world and gives information on Rastafarian, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Daoism, and Muslim practices. With a magnificent collection of photos from all around the world depicting each practice along with quotes scattered throughout the book, the reader truly gets the authentic nature of each of these faiths. This book teaches children about religion without being too “preachy.” It gives unbiased information about each religion and teaches children how to accommodate, understand, and accept other’s practices.

[Abby Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning photographs from all over the world document children celebrating their faith in different ways. Many different countries and religions are represented and the simple text is great for sharing with young children and older children. A section at the back of the book gives more information about how different people express their faith through dress, food, prayer, holidays, and more. A map is also included that shows all the countries represented in the book. Absolutely excellent and highly recommended.

Read my full review on my blog:
http://abbylibrarian.blogspot.com/200...

[Amelia Halgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a little surprised that my daughter has asked me to read this book multiple times because, while I find it touching, it doesn't have a story; I can imagine that for a younger child it might be hard to connect the text with what is going on in the pictures. I think it may be the pictures that she really enjoys -the authors certainly manage to gather a diverse group of people on each page. I like that every page demonstrates how, although we all look different, we celebrate our faith in many similar ways.

[Marcia First · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: Information

Faith describes the main religious beliefs and practices of people around the world. Each page highlights a different element of faith such as praying, chanting/singing, reading holy books, listening/learning, cleansing, holy places, etc. The books seeks to show commonalities between the different faiths. The photgraphs are beautiful and a glossary at the back helps children to understand some of the traditions.