People don't want to learn about religions just because there are religions out there. People want to learn about religions because they know that religions have great answers to the big questions. Award-winning authors Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monsignor Thomas Hartman have produced a unique way of looking at the world's religions. Instead of isolating each religion in its own separate chapter, this book unites the religions by showing how each of them answers these universal questions: How should we live? What happens to us after we die? Why does bad stuff happen to good folks? How can we talk to God? With a refreshing combination of humor and sensitivity, a rabbi and priest show us how Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and the other great religions teach us to live. This wise and often thoughtprovoking book shows us that each religion has its own wisdom and its own wonderful stories. It also explains who works for God, why the world's religions are so different, and why some days of the year have become holy. How Do You Spell God? helps us appreciate religions from all over the world. It will also help us better understand our planet, our families, and ourselves. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly With conviction, common sense and humor, Gellman and Hartman tackle the concept of religion along with related issues and concerns. A religions-of-the-world recap (in a chapter called "What Question Does Each Religion Want to Answer the Most?") provides basic information on the beliefs of various organized religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto and Islam. For each group the authors supply biographies of the Big Teachers (religious leaders) and identify holy days, holy books, holy places and holy times of life. Two of the more spiritually moving chapters, respectively, describe methods of praying and offer explanations of why "bad stuff happens to good folks." Co-hosts of the syndicated weekly cable television program The God Squad, Gellman and Hartman exhibit great facility in discussing potentially thorny subjects, making it easy for young readers to digest their work. The slightly informal language and clear writing style combine to achieve a tone that is intelligent and respectful-and relevant to today's kids. Ages 10-up. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal Grade 6-9?Comparative religion for the middle school set? Yes, and brilliantly done by Gellman and Hartman, who expertly simplify, without reducing, their complex subject. The authors celebrate the varied beauties of holiness with a genius for clarifying the abstract (e.g., characterizing religions by the questions they most want to answer, or categorizing them as "tribal" v. "open"). The holy books, teachers, places, and days of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism are described with appreciation, liveliness, and humor in a direct, conversational style that eschews both contractions and big words, but leans real often on an adverbial "real." If you don't mind this bit of grammatical freethinking, then there's only one major drawback to the book. A two-page discussion of ordination never mentions women priests in the Anglican Communion and nuns and non-Orthodox female rabbis rate the same brief nod given to altar girls. If feminists will be displeased, so will animists: African and Native American wisdom is occasionally quoted, but no serious consideration of these religious orientations is offered. Nevertheless, this extraordinary title is so full of wisdom, good sense, bad jokes, and great stories?not to mention solid information?that it deserves to earn its authors a star in their heavenly crowns.?Patricia (Dooley) Lothrop Green, St. George's School, Newport, RI Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.