This post ends my series of picture books for each of the eight Pagan holy days.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a wonderful journey for me and I hope it has provided some useful spiritual resources for you as well.\u00a0 Stay tuned for more picture book posts on other Pagan topics over the next few months!<\/p>\n
Lammas (from \u201cloaf-mass\u201d),\u00a0\u00a0also known as Lughnasadh in honor of the Irish god Lugh, is a festival of Celtic origin celebrating the first harvest \u2013 of corn, grain, and fruit \u2013 and the power of abundance. It is a time to enjoy our family and community and appreciate what we have. There are many wonderful kids\u2019 activities to celebrate this holiday<\/a>. Making corn dollies is a way to honor the harvest; traditionally they could be made out of any grain (such as wheat) but there are also traditions in the Americas of making dollies out of corn husks. Here are instructions for making a corn dolly out of corn husks<\/a>. Bread baking is another traditional activity which can be both mundane and magical. I came across this initiative from England called Late summer<\/span> \u2013 The \u201cdog days\u201d of August, and summer\u2019s end.\n Here are my picks for picture books to celebrate Lammas.\u00a0 It was surprisingly hard to narrow down my choices as, fittingly, I had an abundance of fabulous options!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This board book recounts a toddler\u2019s day in photographs, portraying a sense of wonder at the beauty of small everyday moments from the toddler\u2019s point of view (for example, a photo shows the child playing \u201cairplane\u201d on a grown-up\u2019s knees and the caption is \u201cI flew!\u201d).\u00a0 At the end of the day, the book revisits all the moments expressing gratitude for each one: \u201cThank you, banana. Thank you, bath\u2026\u201d\u00a0 The gorgeous, bright photographs are both appealing and evocative, likely to bring out a smile as both children and adult readers remember similar moments in their experience.\u00a0 For babies and up.<\/span><\/p>\n Pagan Notes: Lammas, as the first harvest festival, is a wonderful time for giving thanks and being glad for what we have, and this book could be a perfect accompaniment to a special harvest meal. There has been a movement in recent years toward teaching children explicitly about gratitude.\u00a0 The research has focused on how it can increase feelings of happiness.\u00a0 While I enjoy complaining as much as anyone, I find family rituals of sharing gratitude can be a wonderful way to cultivate a sense of the sacredness of everyday life, as well as an antidote to the consumer culture of dissatisfaction.\u00a0 Gratitude rituals can be as simple as going around at dinner time and sharing what each person is feeling grateful for that day, or can involve more elaborate offerings of thanks to gods, goddesses, the earth, and\/or Spirit, on household altars or in special outdoor places.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Full, Full, Full of Love, by Trish Cooke, illustrated by Paul Howard\u00a0 In this sweet book, a little boy is visiting his grandmother\u2019s house and waits impatiently for dinner time as members of the extended family slowly begin to arrive for the meal.\u00a0 Finally everyone arrives and the family shares a meal together full of joy, affection, and closeness.\u00a0 Although I wished someone would give this hungry kid a little snack so he could make it until dinner (in the book, family members redirect and distract him as he waits for the food to be ready), I loved the portrayal of a close-knit family preparing to enjoy a meal together.<\/span><\/p>\n Pagan Notes: Lammas is a wonderful time to honor the sacred act of sharing bread with one another.\u00a0 In most spiritual and religious traditions, the sharing of food is a special ritual that creates relationships between strangers (in many cultures, breaking bread with someone creates social obligations) and reinforces relationships among kin.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ll try and describe this Caldecott Honor book to you (\u2026but really you should just get hold of a copy right away): An extended family on a summer\u2019s day, moving through adventures from morning till night; glorious illustrations with vividly drawn details but also a sweeping sense of the big picture; poetic, rhyming text celebrating both the little things in life and the big things; images that represent this family and community including same-gender couples, interracial families, babies and elders.\u00a0 The first few pages, showing the family at a beach, read: \u201cRock, stone, pebble, sand\/ Body, shoulder, arm, hand\/ A moat to dig, a shell to keep\/ All the world is wide and deep.\u201d\u00a0 For toddlers and up.<\/span><\/p>\n Pagan Notes: The expansiveness of this book, the celebration of summer fun, the community togetherness, and the bounty of the farmers\u2019 market all say Lammas to me.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Summer\u2019s Vacation, by Lynn Plourde, illustrated by Greg Couch\u00a0 I just discovered this book, which is part of a series for the four seasons, and I\u2019m excited to check out the others in the series!\u00a0 This book features playful, rhyming text which portrays Summer as a young girl who enjoys all kinds of summer pastimes together with her Mother Earth and Father Time.\u00a0 However, despite their reminders to \u201cdo your chores,\u201d she puts off her chores until suddenly she realizes the earth is looking brown and dry.\u00a0 After some tears, she puts things to rights and the earth is green again.\u00a0 The rhymes are a little uneven, but I liked the real-life feeling of the girl avoiding her chores despite reminders, until she realizes the consequences.\u00a0 I loved the illustrator\u2019s unique portrayal of Father Time with celestial cogs and spheres.\u00a0 For toddlers and up.<\/p>\n Pagan Notes: This could be a great Summer Solstice read, but the dry and parched earth reminded me of late summer here in Northern California (especially in our current extreme drought), and of the issues of scarcity and abundance that are so strongly present at the holiday of Lammas.\u00a0 Also, the book\u2019s ending portrays the transition toward autumn.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In this retelling of an old Irish myth, the giant Finn MacCool is big, strong, and kind, but\u2026 not too bright.\u00a0 He goes on a quest to find the salmon of wisdom and eat it so he can become wise and serve Ireland.\u00a0 But when he finds it, he is filled with compassion and doesn\u2019t want to kill the salmon.\u00a0 For preschoolers and up.<\/span><\/p>\n Pagan Notes: Since Lammas is a Celtic holiday, I wanted to include at least one story from a Celtic culture, and my family really enjoyed this one.\u00a0 Lammas is also known as Lughnasadh after the Irish god Lugh, who famously sought entry to the hall of the gods for each of his many talents (as a poet, a warrior, a carpenter, a healer\u2026).\u00a0 For each he was refused, because there was already someone with that talent among the gods.\u00a0 Lugh finally gained entry when he asked \u201cBut do you have anyone who is master of all these talents?\u201d and they had to admit they did not.\u00a0 I was reminded of that legend when I read this story and thought of Finn trying to seek the sacred salmon of wisdom in order to be strong, kind, AND wise.\u00a0 In the story, his kindness makes him worthy to receive the sacred wisdom.\u00a0 At this time of harvest, may we all sow kindness and reap wisdom at the end of our labors.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The First Tortilla, by Rudolfo Anaya, illustrated by Amy C\u00f3rdova\u00a0 This bilingual story set in Mexico tells the story of how people came to eat corn and make it into tortillas.\u00a0 Young Jade, guided by a blue hummingbird, seeks a remedy for the drought and famine affecting her village.\u00a0 When she makes an offering to the Mountain Spirit, she is rewarded by an introduction to a delicious food called corn; she quickly figures out how to make it into pozol, masa, and tortillas, and shares her knowledge with her neighbors. You can see from the cover image here that Amy C\u00f3rdova\u2019s colorful, richly detailed images are a feast for the reader\u2019s eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n Pagan Notes: Lammas is a wonderful time for celebrating corn, one of the great native plants of the Americas.\u00a0 As we read this book, my child was surprised to see the blue and red corn Jade collects, and I was reminded that the yellow and white varieties we eat are just the tip of the iceberg of the many diverse types of corn available in North America.\u00a0 Although the central offering in this book might be based around superstition (the idea that we\u2019re having a drought because we didn\u2019t perform the proper rituals), there is an underlying deeper truth about the need to respect and honor the earth we live on.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Okay, I saved my favorite for last.\u00a0 This older book is out of print but you might find a copy at your local library, or a used copy (I see a few on Alibris right now for low prices) \u2013 it\u2019s well worth your time and expense!\u00a0 In a medieval village where legends about the Green Man abound, a rich, arrogant youth gets stranded in the woods when someone steals his clothes while bathing.\u00a0 He finds shelter in a nearby cave and gradually makes his own clothes out of leaves, gathers his own food, and starts to help animals and people in need.\u00a0 He is transformed into the Green Man in the eyes of those he encounters.\u00a0 Finally, he takes another bather\u2019s clothes (leaving him to become the new Green Man) and returns home to his family, where he is now ready to take on adult responsibility and be a true, generous steward of the land.\u00a0 For older preschoolers and up (this is a fairly text-heavy book).\u00a0 You can see some of the gorgeous illustrations on the author\u2019s website<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 here\u2019s one example:<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/309\/2014\/07\/Amazing-Day-290x300.png\" "\\"Amazing")
<\/a>My Amazing Day: A Celebration of Wonder and Gratitude, by Karin Fisher-Golton, photos by Lori A. Cheung, design by Elizabeth Iwamiya<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/309\/2014\/07\/full-full-full-of-love-259x300.png\" "\\"full")
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/309\/2014\/07\/All-The-World-300x297.png\" "\\"All")
<\/a>All the World, by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Frazee<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/309\/2014\/07\/Summers-Vacation-243x300.png\" "\\"Summer's")
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/309\/2014\/07\/Finn-McCool-246x300.png\" "\\"Finn")
<\/a>Finn MacCool and the Great Fish, by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Zachary Pullen<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/309\/2014\/07\/The-First-Tortilla-300x259.png\" "\\"The")
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/309\/2014\/07\/the-green-man-300x237.png\" "\\"the")
<\/a>The Green Man, by Gail E. Haley<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/309\/2014\/07\/from-the-green-man-300x169.png\" "\\"from")
<\/a><\/p>\n