Celebrating Diwali: History, Traditions, and Activities – A Holiday Book for Kids (Holiday Books for Kids)

Lovely book :) Very informative and useful for parents who are teaching festival and values of Diwali to their kids. Illustrations are on point and definitely convey all the details to a young reader. My toddler enjoyed reading it with me and was able to recreate the scenarios at home. Thanks !

I always wanted the kids in my family to learn more diverse culture and tradition and this book is a great place to start. It provided a brief introduction of Diwali and included some activities for engagement. The content indeed is more suitable for older toddlers (I was reading this book with a kindergartener) and some of the parts was a bit challenging as it still have a good bit of text, but nonetheless we had a great time.

I live in a community with a large Indian population and am familiar with Diwali celebrations. After reading this book I feel better acquainted with the traditions that give it significance. And that's traditions - plural. Modern India is a patchwork of different peoples with dozens of different languages, cultures, and stories. The traditions underpinning Diwali are equally as diverse. Even though this book is written for the under-10 crowd, the author does an admirable job of representing how different groups understand and celebrate Diwali, while also focusing on the common elements of the various traditions. There is also a chapter on Diwali celebrations outside of India.The book is arranged like a standard easy reader chapter book - plenty of illustrations and plenty of sidebars for additional explanatory content. Nice layout with colorful and whimsical illustrations - religious/culturally significant content is presented reverently, but still in a cartoony way that will appeal to children. The last chapter contains a dozen or so Diwali-related activities and crafts.From reading the introduction I believe the target audience is children of Indian parents living abroad - a way to pass down and preserve traditions. But it's also a great introduction for anyone interested in understanding the Diwali tradition - no insider knowledge required. I'm much older than the kids this book is targeted for - and it was still a great read. Highly recommended.

This short, concise book about Diwali educates children about the holiday. The book teaches kids about the origins of the holiday, what the celebrations usually involve, and how traditions differ for various cultural and religious groups. The author mainly writes about Hindu practices, and summarizes others more briefly. There is a glossary at the end, and the book suggests different crafts and activities that kids can do to celebrate. The book assumes that the reader is unfamiliar with the holiday, and is therefore best for Western audiences and children of immigrants who want to connect with their cultural roots.My main critique is that because the book is so brief, the author doesn't adequately explain the different religions that she touches on while mentioning their different mythologies and beliefs related to Diwali. This could have been even stronger with more explanation for secular kids or kids of different religions who aren't familiar with what these faiths teach. Also, since many secular people celebrate Diwali as a cultural heritage event without a personal religious background, I thought it would have been nice for the author to mention this instead of only linking Diwali to faith. Nonetheless, this is a nice basic introduction.

Celebrating Diwali is an interesting book with colorful pictures for children ages 6-9 as well as to their parents. Diwali or Deepavali means row of lights and is a Hindu festival celebrated in India and many parts of the world where Indians live. Diwali is a celebration light over darkness or victory of good over the evil.Celebrating Diwali is 40 page book that introduces history, traditions and activities of Diwali so children in foreign lands may understand, appreciate and celebrate Diwali function with their friends and family.It is a holiday book for kids and its author Anjali Joshi, a school teacher provides a simple but good narration of folklore, traditions and customs of Diwali. The book is colorfully illustrated by Lumina Datamatics. There are fascinating information and hands on activities for children around Diwali theme.This is a good book for children to learn about other cultures and traditions.

This is a very well-produced book for kids! It is actually even informative for adults too. What I love about this book is that it provides meaningful and accurate cultural info while speaking to kids on their level (and not speaking down to them). The meaning of each day of Diwali is provided.It is very well illustrated and has fun activities. What I especially like is that it has a "learn to say it" page for kids to learn how to say "Happy Diwali" in 6 different Indian languages (and also provides the original scrip in each language). It also has a glossary and a page of additional resources. I would highly recommend this book as an Intro to Diwali for kids of all cultures and religious backgrounds.

Aside from being a book geared towards children, I genuinely enjoyed it as an adult. It gives you an understanding of what Diwali is about and how it started, how to prepare, and even comes with several recipes which I was not expecting.

Nice and crisp information about the festival.

Nicely written. I already ordered a few more to be gifted as a Diwali gift in the community/friends.