"Teaching Spiritual Themes to African American Children: A Picture Book Approach" is a research project that used picture books to teach the four spiritual themes, 1.) love, 2.) forgiveness, 3.) kindness, and 4.) perseverance. This project was conducted in an after school program at Fifth Baptist Church, on Cary St. in Richmond, VA. The research involved ten children ages six, seven, and eight. The purpose of this research project was to teach African American children through picture book stories over a four week period for three consecutive days each week on the themes of love, forgiveness, kindness, and perseverance hypothesizing that they would internalize and practice their learning of each theme as they relate to other children in the sample group. The group activities were designed to determine the degree to which these themes were internalized and practiced. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]