If God Were a Great Big Bear
By Paul Harbridge, Illustrated by Marta Dorado (Beaming Books, 2025)
“God is in me? And you? And the kitten?”
My 3-year-old found this sentiment hilarious. After we read If God Were a Great Big Bear together, he went around his room asking, “Is God in wolves? Is God in this book? Is God in my toy tractor?” Toddler humor aside, he got the point: God is in all of creation (and, indeed, in books and toy cars and stuffed animals).
Paul Harbridge’s theological reflection is both simple and profound: All of creation is interconnected through God’s presence. With simple prose and evocative illustrations, even the littlest children will have no trouble making these connections. From a little child to a blue whale to a shining star, children discover how God’s spirit is woven into the very fabric of the world around them and how every part of creation—no matter how small or large—reflects divine love and purpose.
One of my favorite parts of the book is how Harbridge uses not only a variety of metaphors to describe God, but a diversity of pronouns as well. God is a planet who dresses himself in “sparkling lakes,” a goose who gives herself “big paddly feet,” and a lilac bush who makes “sun to warm Their flowers.”
The book is a lovely read for young children that both introduces the idea of God’s omnipresence and teaches curiosity and love for the natural world. Parents of toddlers may find themselves answering as many questions about what worms eat and caterpillars’ metamorphosis into butterflies as they do questions about whether God is in the tree outside their window. Regardless of which direction the relentless “why” questions go, though, they’ll be picking up on an essential truth: that the world around them is infused with divine love, wonder, and purpose.
—Emily Sanna
So Many Stars
By Caro de Robertis (Algonquin Books, 2025)
As a public historian by training and queer Catholic oral historian by choice, I found reading Caro de Robertis’ new book, So Many Stars, to be a deeply spiritual experience. I believe that my work recording LGBTQ+ individuals’ oral histories surrounding religion, liberation, and trauma is sacred work, and de Robertis, an Uruguayan writer, translator, and professor, affirms this, featuring the voices of queer, trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit people of color.
Organized into chapters where multiple elders reflect on their childhood and family, migration and intimacy, activism and expression, and future possibilities, the book foregrounds the importance of spirituality to trans and queer people. Discussions of faith, in particular Catholicism, are woven into almost every single chapter. The stories detail attending a disciplinarian Catholic school in Manila, interacting with transphobic religious leaders and family members, and dressing as a drag priest to help community members to heal from decades of religious trauma and abuse.
La Chola Priest—a drag king created by Tupili Lea Arrellano—especially resonated with me. As Arrelano says, “what I had been given in healing my damage from Catholicism, I would pay it forward, share it.” As Fresh “Lev” White says, they are the elders that paved the way for “these young people to get to walk closer to their divine selves.”
The product of hundreds of hours of oral history interviews, it is a 300-page prayer featuring voices that mirror and complete one another. Their stories prompted me to think critically about the queer and trans voices that have shaped, sustained, and challenged the church.
—Emma Cieslik
Briefly noted:
Veracity & Verse
By Rev. Dr. James Alexander Forbes Jr. (Broadleaf Books)
The first Black senior minister at Riverside Church in New York City, Forbes tells his story through weavings of narrative and poetry.
Rainbow Boy and the Pride Parade
By Taylor Rouanzion and illustrated by Stacey Chomiak (Beaming Books)
After hearing their son no longer likes rainbows because they make him “different,” parents take their little boy to a pride parade to celebrate the famous symbol of unity and acceptance.
Journey to the Wild Heart
By Amy Frykholm (Orbis Books)
Offering a wide assortment of spiritual practices, insights, questions for reflection, and more, Frykholm provides an all-in-one text for contemplative living.
This article also appears in the July 2025 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 90, No. 7, page 39). Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
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