Saintly Books for Kids

 

 

 

I wanted to throw out some great suggestions for books on the lives of Saints for Children. I have a couple of tried and true ones that I read when I was a child, and still read to my children today. But we also like to cruise around the library and check out new books from time to time, and occasionally we get a handful on various Saints. I feel like it's really important to provide my children with these types of stories. They are exposed to so many different faces of "morality" in our society, introducing them to stories of people who have struggled for goodness, gave everything to help others, and held fast to their beliefs really gives them a tool to better differentiate right from wrong/good from evil.   

.

 

 

Picture Book of Saints by Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D.

I've had this book since I was a child. It's probably my favorite book on the Saints. The Table of Contents lists all the Saints in Alphabetical Order, and it has an initial page with ornate illustration with the words "Presented To..." that gives you the option to write in the recipients name (perfect for baptism or first communion gifts). There are over 100 Saints in the book (something like 115, I believe) and each Saint has one page dedicated to their biography- so it's brief enough to hold the attention of smaller children with short attention spans. The illustrations are beautiful. Each Saint's page also comes with a little prayer you can say that is pertinent to that particular Saint, along with their feast date.

The Children's Book of Saints by Louis M. Savary, S.T.D.

It's a bit of a smaller book, containing the stories of 52 Saints. Each Saint takes up 2 pages, but one page is a large illustration, so again- one page per story. Great for inattentive preschoolers. This is another book I have had since childhood, so it's a classic. Also contains a prayer for each Saint.

Clare and Francis by Guido Visconti and Bimba Landmann (Illustrations)

My six year old LOVES St. Francis. So she adores this book. I love the artwork, and there is a lot of gold tones in the illustrations that are done with a shiny gold tinted paint. Very beautiful. It doesn't hold the attention of my four year old or two year old, but that's not to say most four year olds/two year olds aren't going to be interested. It took a good 20 minutes to read through this book, so the story is more in depth, and a lot of the vocabulary is going to be geared more towards a grade school kiddo, in my opinion.

The Holy Twins Benedict and Scholastica by Kathleen Norris and Tomie de Paola

I don't know if you've ever seen any of Tomie de Paola's illustrations, but they are awesome! I love this book for that reason- the kids also love this book and it keeps most of them engaged throughout the story. (I say most of them because Emma, my two year old, doesn't stay engaged for ANY book past page 3.)

 

Lives and Legends of the Saints by Carole Armstrong

This book contains the story of 20 different Saints- but what I love the most about this book is the artwork. The images are paintings from the great art museums of the world. So you're kind of adding a little culture to your kiddos lives as an added benefit. And who doesn't love medieval paintings?

Martin de Porres the Rose in the Desert by Gary D. Schmidt

Kaisa, my four year old, LOVES this book. She's very into vibrant, colorful illustrations so I think that is what captures her the most. It's a quick and easy read, which is perfect for bedtime reading.

Saints Lives & Illuminations by Ruth Sanderson

There is something really special about this particular book. It has a bunch of stories of Saints I've never even heard of! The reason I like that is that most children's books about Saints cover the best known ones. So you get lots of stories about St. Therese, St. Dominic, St. Anne, St. Francis of Assisi, etc. But do many of you know anything about St. Spyridon? Or St. Nina? There is even a St. Moses who was an Ethiopian slave! (Ok, maybe YOU all already know these Saints, and I am just a little less educated, I dunno.)

On a side note:

I consider myself a bit of a romantic when in comes to fantasizing about "old fashioned" living. You know, homesteading, back to the land, canning your own food, baking bread early in the morning before the sun rises (Disclaimer: I am NOT a morning person). However, this week has really been a big, wet slap in the face from reality. My dryer broke. My wonderful, amazing, huge dryer BROKE. (I know, First World Problems, amirite?) But now, I have resorted to THIS:

 

The Dreaded Laundry

 



Do you have any idea how long it takes laundry to dry on the line? Or how long it takes to actually PUT said laundry on the line? Or what happens when it rains 3 days in a row, and you have 6 people's laundry to wash on a regular basis? It's pretty much the makings of a HUGE pile of laundry, incessantly growing in my laundry room like a fungus that is going to take over my house any day now. My husband has a part "on order" and I am currently crossing my fingers that it will arrive today.

This has really made me develop a WHOLE new level of respect for people who lived pre-washing maching/dryer days.

An Ode to Ulcerative Colitis

Wow, sorry for my lengthy retreat from Blog Land. I have this pesky disease called Ulcerative Colitis and I have been recovering from a pretty bad flare. The positive of this is that I've had a little time to read an amazing, very lengthy book that I'm excited to tell you about. Also, I've been doing a lot of baking, which is always top on my "ideas of a good time" list. Since my recent flare, I've been doing some research on UC and diets that might help me stay in remission. I found the holy grail of diet blogs, written by Danielle Walker. It's basically Paleo, and a lot of her recipes are SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) friendly. If you have no clue what I'm talking about as I throw out these terms like "SCD" and "Paleo", consider yourself lucky. Having a severely restrictive diet is, well, I'm not going to sugar coat it- it sucks. 😆 For now, I can not partake in what I consider to be some of the yummiest things in existence. Thank goodness I can still eat seafood!

Some days I would honestly trade my left foot for a hot, steamy cup of coffee with a gigantic dollop of cream in it and tons of sugar. But enough complaints out of me. Instead, check out these delicious muffins I made today, recipe here.

Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Onto the book:

I just finished a lovely book called In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. Soooooo good. A little backstory: When I was a little girl, I decided I wanted to be a nun. I was pretty convinced of this until my teenage years. I was completely fascinated with stories of the lives of saints, and they had a major effect on me. Any time my brother and I got into a tussle, a little guilt would pop up in the back recesses of my mind, because someday when they wrote my saintly biography, fighting with my brother wasn't going to be considered a "saintly act." However, I admit I still fought with my brother on a regular basis.

 Clearly, God had other vocational plans for me in life, but I still have a serious fascination with nuns. While reading this book, I felt like I got to peep into the lives of a bunch of cloistered nuns, regardless of the fact that they were fictional characters. There were so many important areas touched on in the book- the spiritual battles certain nuns had to go through, lessons about trusting that God will provide, forgiveness, and overcoming pride, just to name a few. The book is over 600 pages long, but I breezed through it because I couldn't put it down. I loved all of the characters, esp. Abbess Catherine. The plot was so well written. When I started the book, I was sort of afraid it was going to be something I had trouble "getting into" but after the first 20 pages, I was hooked. Highly, highly recommend it.