Diwali Books for Kids: The Definitive List

Diwali is, at its narrative core, the celebration of Rama and Sita’s return to Ayodhya after fourteen years of exile and the war with Ravana — which is to say, the celebration of the end of the Ramayana. Every lamp lit in a window on a Diwali night is a small re-enactment of the lamps the people of Ayodhya lit to welcome Rama home. Which means the best children’s books for Diwali are, before anything else, the children’s books that tell the Ramayana well.

We have included three. The first two — Ramayana: Divine Loophole and Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth, both by Sanjay Patel — are picture books in his neon-pop Pixar-derived visual idiom, accessible from age 4 or 5 and suitable for read-aloud through age 10 or so. Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth belongs on a Diwali list because Ganesha is invoked at the start of every auspicious occasion in the Hindu calendar, including the lighting of the Diwali lamps; the book is also short, joyful, and unmistakably festive in tone.

The third entry, Sita’s Ramayana, is for an older reader — twelve and up — and tells the same story from Sita’s perspective in Patua scroll-painting style. It is not a celebratory book. It is the Ramayana looked at honestly, including the parts that come after the homecoming, and it is the right gift for a teenager who has heard the festive version for years and is ready to ask harder questions about it.

If you are buying for a young child, get Divine Loophole and Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth. If you are buying for a thoughtful adolescent, get Sita’s Ramayana. A household with children across that age range eventually wants all three.