Picture Books, The Way of Love, & Becoming Beloved Community

Picture books are magical. That’s why we created this list of picture books to help you share the Way of Love with children, youth, and adults. Each title relates to at least one of the seven practices of the Way of Love, with two additional categories: Love and Becoming Beloved Community.

This list is sortable by practice. Here’s a link for help with sorting. If you’re knowledgable about spreadsheet software like Excel or Numbers, Google Sheets works very similarly. You can copy and paste this list into your favorite spreadsheet if you wish. However – this list will continue to grow. The Google Sheets link will always have the newest information.

Please make suggestions for additions, deletions, and additional practices for titles already on the list or for titles you recommend in the comments or email me with your ideas. Please share feedback! If a book works well, please let us know. If it bombs or doesn’t seem to fit the designated practice, we want to know that, too.

Picture books are magical, which means they’re for everyone. Get to the library or bookstore and check out some of the books on this list. A great place to start is I Am Human: a book of empathy by Susan Verde, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. It exemplifies the power of pictures saying more than words could express. I Am Human is an excellent choice for most of the practices and for Becoming Beloved Community conversations.

Friends, this is just the beginning! I have a long way to go adding books from my personal library, let alone new books. We want to add links to online information about each book. This list will ultimately turn into a website, but first, we must build the foundation. Let’s continue to create this list together. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this work, especially The Rev. Jenifer Gamber who needed it and pushed me to get to work.

Dear God, Thank you for your many gifts, including the gift of picture books and all who bring them to life. We pray that these books will be a blessing to all who read, mark, and inwardly digest them. In Jesus’ name, Amen!