Sparkles of Joy

A really sweet little book that teaches young children about the Indian festival of Diwali (with a smattering of Christmas and Hanukkah mentioned as well) through the lens of a group of friends who are celebrating the festival together. The book is a sweet way to show that kids are accepting of all traditions information & ability to experience them. I love that there an appendix at the end of the book giving a bit more detail about Diwali and includes a traditional activity of how to make your own diyas, my son and I gave them a go and while ours aren't as pretty as they could be, it was a fun and enriching activity. The illustrations are striking, colourful and draw in the eye of adults and children alike. This is such a lovely book introducing children to diversity in celebrations and how beautiful any celebration can be regardless of faith. I'd love to go to an in person Festival of Lights and experience its beauty first hand after reading this. Thank you to NetGalley for sending me a digital ARC of this book to read with my son in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful book with great illustrations. I found this useful to become more knowledgeable about Dawili festivals bit the bonus was the salt dough decoration recipe and a good checklist for organising your own festival and making sure you understand what you need to show love from all back grounds

Love the cultural diversity representation!

Thank you, Raising World Children LLC, for the advance reading copy.

For Indians, the story is quite relatable and familiar. This short, colourful picture book would tell the meaning behind the great festival of Deewali which is celebrated all over the country with great pomp and joy.

Love the colourful illustrations.

A cute little book about celebrating and learning about different kinds of holidays.

The book takes place at a Diwali celebration, where we get to know Diwali, Hanukkah, and Christmas. (The last one I want to point out that everyone can celebrate Christmas wether you are a Christian or not. The Viking celebrated Christmas long before it was deemed a Christian holiday; did you know Jesus was born in the summer, and that since most people celebrated Christmas it was much easier to take that day and say ‘It’s Jesus’ birthday!’. Anyway, back to the book.)

The illustrations were beautiful, and the description and introduction to each holiday they all celebrated were easy to understand.

I think this is a great book for children to learn more about different holidays. At the end of the book, there’s more information if there’s more questions coming up throughout the book. An overall good read. I recommend it!