While the Advent season is filled with fun and expectations, Lent can be hard for children. It’s travels through frightening places, loaded with themes of self-denial and death. How can children approach this season in a way that is meaningful and not frightening? Make Room presents Lent as a special time for creating a welcoming space for God. Other books offer excellent ideas for going through the Lenten season with children, but Make Room uniquely connects its projects to the story of Jesus. Simple and practical activities such as baking bread, having a neighbor over for dinner, uncluttering your room, and watching less TV become acts of justice and kindness, part of a life of following and imitating Christ, and a way to make room for God in our lives and in the world around us.

Other books tell the Passion narrative for young readers; this unique book integrates themes of hospitality and self-giving that echo Jesus’ ministry, Jesus’ entire life. Make Room invites children to wonder about the story, to encounter Lent with all their senses, and to experience activities in Lent as part of a life of discipleship.

Imbued with a sense of wonder, and a strong connection to the natural world, Laura Alary's books invite young readers to engage with the liturgical seasons of the church year. Breathe is a journey through Ascension, Pentecost, and Ordinary Time. "The day of Pentecost is coming. The church is changing color. The white and gold of Easter will soon burst into flaming red, then cool to green." So begins Breathe: A Child's Guide to Ascension, Pentecost, and the Growing Time. In the warm, thoughtful style that has made her books so popular with families who want to encourage their children to think deeply and engage their spiritual imaginations, Laura Alary presents the third book in a trilogy (previous books include Look! A Child's Guide to Advent and Christmas and Make Room: A Child's Guide to Lent and Easter) that explores the church's liturgical seasons. At the heart of Breathe lies a puzzle: How can Jesus go away, yet promise to be with us always? Can we trust someone who comes and goes so mysteriously? Moving beyond long ago and far away events, Breathe invites children to wonder about and watch for the presence and work of the Spirit here and now, in practices of prayer and mindfulness, and through acts of justice, generosity, and kindness. Slowly but surely, we discover that we are the body of Jesus now, his way of being in the world. And that whenever we choose the way of love, Jesus is there. Always.

Curiosity leads Mira across the river, to an "enemy" village where people have beliefs that are strange to her. But when one of these strangers helps her get home, Mira has big questions about what's true and asks a wise elder for help. From the story he tells her, she discovers miraculous things about herself, about belief and about all life on Earth. This inspiring story is perfect for readers aged 8 and up.

Look! A Child's Guide to Advent and Christmas presents Advent as special time for waiting and watching-paying attention-to the ways God comes to us. Told from the point of a view of a child, the story weaves together familiar Advent traditions like the Jesse tree and the Advent wreath, biblical stories and characters, and reflections on what these stories call us to do and be. This book reassures children of the presence of God in all times and places and invites them to become part of the holy work of making Christ present in the world.

The cooking of a healthy breakfast moves from parent-child bonding to an eloquent conversation about energy, the growth of plants, and the miraculous ways the sun's light nourishes us all. It began with the sun, Who showers the earth With heat and light- Tiny packets of energy. How does a home-cooked breakfast give a little girl the energy she needs for a brand-new day? In gently expressive language, her mother takes readers on a journey into the earth where sleepy seeds are tickled awake and grow into golden oats; into blueberry patches, where green leaves break apart water and air to build sweet sugar; and into a pasture where sun becomes grass, becomes cow, becomes milk. Author Laura Alary's free verse breaks big ideas into child-sized pieces, making Sun in My Tummy an accessible introduction to the concepts of matter and energy, and how the sun's light becomes fuel for our bodies through the food we eat. Andrea Blinick's mixed-media illustrations pair the cozy and homelike with the glowing and dramatic as she takes readers from the kitchen to the farm field and to the sky and back. A concluding Author's Note shares further information about photosynthesis for young readers.

The cooking of a healthy breakfast moves from parent-child bonding to an eloquent conversation about energy, the growth of plants, and the miraculous ways the sun's light nourishes us all. It began with the sun, Who showers the earth With heat and light- Tiny packets of energy. How does a home-cooked breakfast give a little girl the energy she needs for a brand-new day? In gently expressive language, her mother takes readers on a journey into the earth where sleepy seeds are tickled awake and grow into golden oats; into blueberry patches, where green leaves break apart water and air to build sweet sugar; and into a pasture where sun becomes grass, becomes cow, becomes milk. Author Laura Alary's free verse breaks big ideas into child-sized pieces, making Sun in My Tummy an accessible introduction to the concepts of matter and energy, and how the sun's light becomes fuel for our bodies through the food we eat. Andrea Blinick's mixed-media illustrations pair the cozy and homelike with the glowing and dramatic as she takes readers from the kitchen to the farm field and to the sky and back. A concluding Author's Note shares further information about photosynthesis for young readers. "This book is as essential as sunshine; the absolutely beautiful STEM story is as absorbing as photosynthesis itself." -School Library Journal Starred Review "Toronto author Laura Alary's poetic rumination about how the sun nourishes us all offers food for thought. The sunny and bright mixed-media illustrations from Andrea Blinick are inviting."-Quill & Quire Starred Review