All Kinds of Beliefs

The republication of this charming introduction for young readers to the major religions in a dual language edition appears timely. Even-handedly reflecting difference both within particular religious communities ('Some Sikh boys wear a patka over their hair. Some Sikh boys have their hair short') and between the faiths (Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism and Hinduism), the book uses lively popups, flaps and pull-out tags to cover religious symbols and rituals in the home and the wat/church/mosque/synagogue/gurdwara/mandir while a poster folds out to illustrate the major religious festivals. Damon's lively pen and wash illustrations make good use of the bright pages with their novelty engineering. As France struggles with legislation to ban the wearing of religious symbols in schools, what would Jacques Chirac make of it? (Also available in Bengali, Chinese, Somali and Urdu dual language editions.)