Rites of passage are something of a golden oldie in RE. In some ways that’s a pity, because we all have more ordinary days than red letter days.

I also remember my deceased friends and relatives more than their funerals, my living friends in their partnerships more than their wedding days and the babies as babies rather than howling in a rite of passage for early childhood. But the events that mark these matters are a reminder of our values and of the friends who support us.

Life Times is a cradle to grave, rites of passage series in hard covers, with colour photos and drawings. The “big six” religions are featured in each book with two or four pages each. The text is fair, although believers’ baptism is called adult baptism and the Christian wedding remains entangled in social protocols, much as it often does in reality. Space constraints mean that inevitably the treatment is brief. Customs are emphasized more than the underlying beliefs. But for all that it’s an attractive resource that children will enjoy.