The Best Books for Pagan Kids

Children under five learn by rhythm and repetition rather than by explanation, so the sabbats reach them through story and picture long before they reach them through the calendar. Every book in this section is short enough for one sitting, strong enough in rhyme or picture to survive the fiftieth reading, and gentle enough for bedtime. 

The Learn About Paganism with Grani Hulda series. Ages two to seven. Nineteen books that teach a child paganism one subject at a time, from witches and herbs to the eight sabbats of the Wheel of the Year. The eight sabbat volumes each explain what that sabbat is and how a family celebrates it, and the rest take up one subject apiece in language a small child can understand. The series grows as new titles are added. Several of the individual books appear on their own below.

Heathens: Learn About Paganism with Grani Hulda. Ages two to seven. Norse paganism for children, from the gods and the nine worlds to how heathen families celebrate today. It pairs well with the two Norse myth collections below.

Herbs: Learn About Paganism with Grani Hulda. Ages two to seven. The common herbs, what each one offers, and how to grow and use them safely. A natural companion to a first herb garden and to the Apothecary.

Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest by Phoebe Wahl. Ages three to seven. Four stories, one for each season, about a tiny forest witch who midwifes owls and tends her neighbors. It is not labeled pagan, but the four stories follow the turning seasons closely enough that it sits naturally on a pagan shelf.

Magic & Potions: Learn About Paganism with Grani Hulda. Ages two to seven. Simple magic and kitchen potions a child can make with things from the pantry and the yard. It puts intention ahead of ingredients, so a child learns the reason for a potion before the recipe.

Owen's Beltane by Frank Besser. Ages three to six. Maypoles, flowers, and a simple family celebration, told at toddler pace with fun facts tucked in for the grown-up reading it.

Rowen's Yule by Frank Besser. Ages three to six. A toddler witch decorates with evergreens, bakes sun cookies, and lights the Yule log with her family. The first book in the Celebrating the Wheel of the Year series, which walks the Wheel of the Year one sabbat at a time.

The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper, illustrated by Carson Ellis. Ages four to eight. Cooper's winter solstice poem, written for theater and now a picture book, follows people through the centuries as they light fires against the longest night. It reads aloud in five minutes and suits the night of the solstice itself.

Skye's Midsummer by Frank Besser. Ages three to six. Skye dances in the flower fields and lights a small candle for the sun on the longest day. Like the rest of the series, it ends with an easy ritual a family can actually do.

The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle von Olfers. Ages three to seven. First published in 1906, this German classic follows the root children as Mother Earth wakes them for spring and welcomes them home in autumn. The Floris Books edition keeps the original artwork.

Sun Bread by Elisa Kleven. Ages three to six. A baker cheers a gray winter town by baking bread shaped like the sun, and the sun itself comes out to share it. The rhymes hold a wriggly listener, and the recipe in the back turns the story into an afternoon in the kitchen.

The Sun, the Moon, and the Planets by Grani Hulda. Ages three to five. A rhyming introduction to the sky, written to be read aloud until the child chants it back. It teaches the names and characters of the sun, the moon, and the planets, and it doubles as a first introduction to both astronomy and astrology.

Tale of the Yule Lads by Grani Hulda. Ages three to eight. A narrative poem that brings the thirteen Yule Lads of Icelandic folklore down from the mountain one night at a time. The verse carries younger listeners through, and older children start counting the nights themselves.

Wild Child by Lynn Plourde. Ages three to six. A bedtime story in which Mother Earth tucks her wild child, autumn, into bed for the winter. It makes the season a character a small child can love and say goodnight to.

Witches: Learn About Paganism with Grani Hulda. Ages two to seven. What a witch is, what a witch is not, and what witches actually do, answered the way children ask it. This is the book for the child who has started asking whether witches are real.

The books in this section cover the Wheel of the Year, either one sabbat at a time or all eight in a single volume. They make excellent gifts at the sabbats, whether it's for a gift basket or a child's altar kit.

The Learn About Paganism with Grani Hulda Wheel of the Year set. Ages two to seven. Eight volumes, one for each sabbat: Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lammas, and Mabon. Each book teaches the history of the holiday, its symbols, and simple ways a child can help the family celebrate, so the set carries a child around the whole wheel year after year.

Rupert's Tales: The Wheel of the Year, Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, and Ostara by Kyrja. Ages four to nine. Rupert the rabbit watches people come into his forest to celebrate, and learns what each holiday means in rhyming stories that beg to be read aloud. The Samhain story handles honoring the dead with unusual gentleness.

Rupert's Tales: The Wheel of the Year, Beltane, Litha, Lammas, and Mabon by Kyrja. Ages four to nine. The second volume finishes the wheel with the four bright-half holidays. Read one story at each sabbat and the two books last a family for years.

The Magical Wheel of the Year by Bérengère Demoncy. Ages five to ten. Sisters Selene and Gaia celebrate all eight sabbats in one illustrated story, with forty crafts, baking projects, and activities woven through. One book that covers the whole wheel makes a strong first sabbat gift.

Sam and the Samhain Scare by Kathleen Converse. Ages four to eight. A picture book that teaches the feeling and the history of Samhain through one child's story. Converse is giving each sabbat its own book, three so far, and this is the one to start with in autumn.

Luke and the Longest Night by Kathleen Converse. Ages four to eight. The winter solstice, told at picture-book pace with the why of the holiday inside the story. The series began with Flora and the First Day of Spring, which covers Ostara.

These two books are for the grown-ups. They teach a parent how to bring the sabbats into a family's own home, with songs, crafts, and celebrations laid out plainly enough to use with a child the same week.

Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions by Starhawk, Diane Baker, and Anne Hill. For the grown-ups. Songs, rituals, crafts, recipes, and read-aloud stories for every sabbat and every rite of passage, from welcoming a baby to sending a teenager off. Pagan parents have handed this book to each other for more than twenty-five years, and it remains the one to own first.

Celebrating the Great Mother by Cait Johnson and Maura D. Shaw. For the grown-ups. Earth-honoring activities, rituals, and celebrations for parents to share with children through the Wheel of the Year. It reads as a companion to Circle Round, with quieter rituals and more crafts.