Stephanie Meyers

Baby's Favorite Things is a large board book, about 7 inches in width and height, so it's easy for the photographs to stand out. I like that each word has two examples, allowing a parent to talk about the differences and a baby to see those slight differences. For instance, "Ball" has a baby next to a soccer ball and another holding a football.

Recommended age: 0-2 years

Writing style: Each page has a single word, such as "Car" or "Blanket."

Lexile score: NP

Illustration style: Large photograph of babies with the specified thing. Backgrounds are white or highly blurred, so they are not distracting. There is a solid-colored border on each page.

Reality-based? Yes, babies will be familiar with each thing, except perhaps a pacifier (skip the page if you're not using one).… (altro)

An interesting review of how many atheists feel about religious celebrations of Christmas. I have lived overseas in Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu societies, and know what it feels like to have all the people around you celebrating something you don't understand and don't agree with.
What is amazing is how these short articles are spaced out. The divisions of the book are: Stories' Science; How To; Philosophy; Arts and finally, Events.
Even more interesting is dividing these articles and their authors into different groups. Some are more anti-Christian than atheist. Some are anti-Christmas celebrations, parties, traditions. Some are non-conformists and anti-peer pressure people. Some are simply argumentative.
However, there is a great deal of circular reasoning from these authors. Many recount experiences in the past with run-ins with difficult pastors, priests, nuns and other authority figures who did not respond well, to what, essentially, is intellectual bullying by the kids, adolescents and adults, which caused a reaction of intellectual bullying in return. Arguing over dogma is never a beneficial experience, especially if you do not agree with the premises of their arguments.

Many of these atheists, and hate the crass commercialization of Christmas, which, of course, is non-Christian. They should be delighted that the Christmas story is being hidden behind rank money-making which they can understand. They are appalled that the Christmas season gets longer and starts earlier each year, which of course means greater profits for companies and capitalists.
Many of these articles are written by people who hate the love, cheer and happiness shown in Christmas movies, songs and party themes. Grouches and sneering people may feel sophisticated and knowledgeable, but this was handled by Charles Dickens many years ago. While atheists have gotten rid of sin, they forget they have gotten rid of virtue as well.

An interesting book, and I recommend it for atheists, who will find here support and reasoning for their many and varied ways of thought and culture.

I also recommend this for cultural outsiders, such as Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others, who are immersed in Christmas cheer for at least six weeks out of the year. One of my Muslim friends, living in London, went outside his apartment, and everything was closed, so he thought there had been an atom bomb strike rather than it being December 25th.

I also recommend this to Christians. It is always good to see another side of Christianity, and to challenge your presumptions and beliefs. I became a better Christian, for example, by having people stop and ask why it is wrong to be a hypocrite. Among Christians, this is a sin. Among others, hypocrite means different things in other religions. Hypocrisy means nothing at all to atheists, who commit neither sin when hypocrites, no win virtue when they are not hypocrites. Thus, they can decorate for Christmas, sing the songs, drink the eggnog and everything else, as a form of camouflage or for custom, without experiencing the joy and happiness of Christmas itself. It is hard for others to understand this, and to be honest, it is harder for atheists to come to grips with the loss or non-existence of virtue as well. The profits from the book go to charity, which is a neat advertising trick, but means nothing. There is no virtue in giving to charity for atheists, as there is no sin for not doing so. It is a conundrum.… (altro)