She’s getting rave reviews for her children’s books!
Randa Handleris an international journalist, publicist and publisher. Her interview with actor Rock Hudson — his last interview — was published worldwide. In 2003, Handler moved into publishing, successfully launching an educational series of children’s books used as lesson plans by elementary school teachers. These days, Handler continues dedicated to writing and illustrating children’s books. In 2013, she won the Mom’s Choice Award and her books are getting rave reviews from kids, parents and teachers! With what’s going on in the world, I was pleasantly surprised to stumble onto one of Handler’s books. I was curious to see what all the debate was about with one of them in particular, entitled The Boy Who Spoke To God. The Boy Who Spoke To God is not religious and is set as a fairy tale with four tribes that seem to not get along around the holidays because they want to celebrate them on different times. In this story, a Greek boy tries to find the answer through dreams of God. In the book, God is not illustrated, which is cool. Every tribe assumes that God is their God. Unable to agree on their ideas about God and religious celebrations, four different ethnic tribes — Greeks, Chinese, Zulus, and Mayans — who live together harmoniously most of the year, combining aspects of each of their cultures to make their kingdom strong and prosperous, suddenly become divisive when religious holidays approach. During such times, they cannot agree on the timing or manner of religious traditions, and they each have their own god who looks and dresses as they do.
When Niko, a young Greek boy, has several dreams of God, each tribe interprets the various details of his dreams according to its own view of God, further emphasizing the tribes’ differences in beliefs. So Niko is shunned for having created even more disharmony and for lying to the tribes. Or so they think. Because no one believes he actually dreamed of God.
To clear up all the confusion and arrive at the truth, Niko begs God to manifest in one final dream. This time, God shows him that the tribes’ beliefs are actually different expressions of the same god.
“Niko concludes that God is like colorless and formless iridescent light and the beliefs of all tribes about their gods are correct. These gods are like colors of the rainbow that derive from white light.” says Handler. And she adds: “I almost always try to encompass cute multiracial characters to instill, in her early readers love, acceptance and tolerance of diversity.” If you’re gifting a child, don’t forget to check The Boy Who Spoke To God by Randa Handler out. I also think it’s fantastic that teachers use this book in the classroom, beacuse it’s a great way to open dialogue with children about all beliefs. Don’t you think? Let me know your opinion in the comments below and feel free to share this article, if you like it.
Originally published at chocolatebooksanddreamnooks.blogspot.pt.
