All Kinds of Festivals {a children's book review}

While growing up in Baja Mexico I learned all about Mexican culture, traditions and festivals. It was a great experience that sparked my interest in different cultures and my desire to travel. I'm half Cuban, half Mexican. Born in the U.S. and raised between the U.S. and Mexico. Still my mother taught us about her Cuban heritage, history and culture as well as Cuban Cuisine.

I have always considered me a blend of three different cultures with different holidays to be celebrated throughout the year. Which is one of the reasons why we are raising Adventure Girl and Boy open to different traditions and teaching them about how holidays are celebrated around the globe. 

Insight Kids is one of my favorite book editor's for children's books. Mostly due to their "All kinds..." Series. Our latest book received from them is "All Kinds of Festivals" and it is everything and more than what I expected. 

Adventure Girl read and read all about the festivals, her favorite one was "Day of the Dead" mostly because we celebrate it at home. We shared about it back in 2011, showing you our sugar skull "Calaverita de azucar". We have fun preparing for it too, we've done great-grandparents altars with their favorite meal prepared and placed in the altar as well as their pictures and a rhyme that is created for them. The rhyme is funny and tells a bit about them. 

One of the festivals in the book that I loved learning about was the Chinese Lantern Festival, it is celebrated on the 15th day of the Chinese New Year in February. The lanterns are symbols of good luck, it's one that I would love to experience one day. Maybe a trip to China in the future? I hope so, specially around this time of year to enjoy the Lantern Festival in all it's splendor. 

Another festival that I loved was Holi, it is celebrated in India in early Spring. It is a religious festival. Painted and jeweled elephants, dancers, musicians and lots of color in this festival! 

All Kinds of Festivals is written by Sheri Safran and illustrated by Rachel Fuller. It is a great book to add to your children's book library, it teaches about festivals around the globe and it is a lift the flap kind of book. Which keeps children interested in reading on each festival. At the end of the book is a large poster with Harvest Festivals around the globe! 

To learn more about Insight Kids and their great books make sure you follow them on Facebook, Make sure you visit their website they're a great book publisher that is always focused on books on popular culture that will teach about life, respect, cultures, feelings. I love them! 

Disclosure: I received a copy of the book "All kinds of festivals" to facilitate my review, however all opinions are 100% my own. 

All Kinds of Beliefs {a children's book review and giveaway}

Living in the United States of America gives us the opportunity to learn and live in a community that shares different beliefs. In our family we are fascinated by all the cultural and religious differences and we ask questions to our neighbors that are from a different culture and religious background to learn more about it as well as to respect the differences. 

When we live in a diverse community learning about other religions and beliefs is easier, we grow up knowing about Diwali, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc. And we know that even though we might have different beliefs that most of us believe in a higher power. We also learn that some people have no religious beliefs and that is complete fine. Like I said respect is key here and learning helps us respect others and be kind to diversity.

This is one of the many reasons why "All Kinds of Beliefs" -a lift the flap book-  is one of my favorites, it not only teaches about each religious belief but it also does so in detail through the lifting of flaps and beautiful illustrations. 

The author Sheri Safran has become one of my favorite children's book authors because she has a gift of explaining culture in a way that children of all ages can understand and adults can also learn from. In this book she teamed up with Emma Damon to illustrate it and they did a wonderful job with the intricate details of explaining the different places of worship and what they have inside. 

Adventure Girl loved learning more about different religions as she has friends from all of the beliefs mentioned in the book. 

Last month as our neighbors celebrated Diwali we were very fortunate to get a detailed explanation on what the holiday was all about and learned about the traditions to celebrate it. 

GIVEAWAY!

We love the book so much that we asked to give one copy away to one lucky Stroller Adventures reader! All you have to do is follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter form below. Easy right? 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a copy of the book "All Kinds of Beliefs" to facilitate my review, however all opinions are 100% my own. As well as my enthusiasm towards this author and book editor.