# Atheist/agnostic children's books? (besides Golden Compass series) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 11, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677 "2007-12-11T23:33:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/1 "2007-12-11T23:33:50Z")
Excepting the Pullman trilogy (which I have read), please list any atheist/agnostic children’s books you know of. “Young adult” books with atheist/agnostic protagonists are good, but I’m especially interested to know if there are any picture books aimed at young kids…maybe something like “Mommy, why does Megan’s Family Call Us Heathens?” Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/2 "2007-12-11T23:51:14Z")
There are some interesting things on this page. I had better luck searching under secular humanism than atheism. A lot of them seem to be aimed at rational ways of teaching morality. [http://evolvefish.com/fish/kidsbooks.html](http://evolvefish.com/fish/kidsbooks.html) ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/3 "2007-12-11T23:58:38Z")
I don’t beleive that any of the Dr. Suess series is overtly religious. ---
**Author:** ![Dunawake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dunawake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunawake)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/4 "2007-12-12T00:01:47Z")
[QUOTE=cher3] There are some interesting things on this page. I had better luck searching under secular humanism than atheism. A lot of them seem to be aimed at rational ways of teaching morality. [http://evolvefish.com/fish/kidsbooks.html](http://evolvefish.com/fish/kidsbooks.html) [/QUOTE] Some of those books sound pretty good, but I just find the one “Why Mommy is a Democrat” to be absolutely hilarious. In a kinda scary way. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/5 "2007-12-12T01:04:12Z")
Ursula Le Guin is very influenced by taoism but I can’t think of any religious stuff in any of her books (other than anthropological, as in _The Tombs of Atuan_–I mean that none of her characters profess big religious beliefs, pray, thank God or gods when tragedy is averted, etc. She does get into life after death in the Earthsea books, but less than Pullman does in his. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/6 "2007-12-12T01:31:15Z")
[Prometheus Books](http://www.prometheusbooks.com/) is a pretty good source, but honestly, I’m getting frustrated with the lack of such books for preschool age kids. I’m actually in the middle of writing a book about the nativity from a non-Christian point of view for my four year old, because she’s seeing all these images and hearing about Jesus, and she doesn’t know what it all means. (She refers to angels as “fairies” and thought Mary in the nativity scene was “Cinderella when she got married.”) I do like _The Shortest Day_, about the winter solstice - just now she’s starting to be old enough to enjoy that book. ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/7 "2007-12-12T01:32:57Z")
That evolvefish link is great! Exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/8 "2007-12-12T03:47:06Z")
Well, I’m not a parent yet, but a lot of those books seem kind of…wimpy. Are there any non-religious kids books with more of a Objectivist or even a Nietzschean perspective? _“‘T’ is for ‘Tot’—as in ‘Tater Tot’ or ‘Gott ist Tot’!”_ ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/9 "2007-12-12T14:55:55Z")
Or you could try exposing The Young Ones to [The Old Ones](http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/17/plush-necronomicon.html)! A bit more seriously–why not look at various world [mythologies](http://www.amazon.com/Daulaires-Greek-Myths-Ingri-DAulaire/dp/0385015836)? Even though we _know_ these stories aren’t historically true, they are fascinating. The more gods & goddesses the kids meet, the less likely they are to be swept away by mystery later in life. (Let’s not forget the [Norse](http://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Norse-Myths-Ingri-DAulaire/dp/159017125X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197471362&sr=1-2) stories.) ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/10 "2007-12-12T15:46:42Z")
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke] The more gods & goddesses the kids meet, the less likely they are to be swept away by mystery later in life. [/QUOTE] I agree with this. My dad introduced me to a lot of Greek and Norse mythology when I was a kid, and it was a big factor in my disregarding religion as nonsense (very interesting nonsense, of course) at a very young age. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/11 "2007-12-12T17:37:39Z")
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke] A bit more seriously–why not look at various world [mythologies](http://www.amazon.com/Daulaires-Greek-Myths-Ingri-DAulaire/dp/0385015836)? Even though we _know_ these stories aren’t historically true, they are fascinating. The more gods & goddesses the kids meet, the less likely they are to be swept away by mystery later in life. (Let’s not forget the [Norse](http://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Norse-Myths-Ingri-DAulaire/dp/159017125X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197471362&sr=1-2) stories.) [/QUOTE] Hmm, that approach really backfired with C.S. Lewis, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/12 "2007-12-12T17:44:27Z")
[QUOTE=Skammer] Hmm, that approach really backfired with C.S. Lewis, I guess. [/QUOTE] And me too. The D’AULAIRES book was my absolute favorite as a kid, and to this day I enjoy working religiously and magickally with the Greek pantheon. And yes, I was raised by functional atheists. But I think people are either wired for religion or they’re not, in varying degrees, and moderate indoctrination in either direction will not stop someone with a high degree of “religiousity” or a high degree of “atheism” from eventually bearing that out. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/13 "2007-12-12T23:27:44Z")
[Chocolat](http://www.amazon.com/Chocolat-Joanne-Harris/dp/014100018X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197501962&sr=8-3), on which the movie of the same name was based. The book is more openly antithetical to religion and the church than the movie. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-agnostic-childrens-books-besides-golden-compass-series/429677/14 "2007-12-13T00:11:53Z")
_The Bridge to Terabithia_ has an agnostic/atheist character. The main character is Christian, and the question of whether a non-believer goes to Hell comes up. It’s a good read and a classic kids’ book for late elementary school.