Customer Reviews

Loyola Kids Book of Heroes: Stories of Catholic Heroes and Saints throughout History

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fresh from her successful "Prove It" series aimed at teens, author Amy Welborn has released two catechetical works targeting elementary school-aged children.

The "Book of Heroes" is a terrific way to teach your children the Faith. The stories are so captivating, your little ones will be catechized without even realizing it!

Structured around the three theological and four moral virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity (Love), Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude and Justice, Welborn's book shares four-page stories about famous and not-so-famous Catholics in history.

Each section features a short discussion of a relevant portion of the Gospel and then a series of biographical sketches to show a virtue in action.

The section on Faith begins with an account of the Incarnation, with its mystery described as "[t]he all-powerful, all-loving God who'd created the world was wrapped up in a blanket, being fed by his mother, and peacefully going to sleep." She then describes the Incarnation's four-fold purpose in language children can understand.

My seven-year-old son's favorite chapter is "Charlemagne and Alcuin", a story that teaches the virtue of temperance. Everyone is familiar with Charlemagne's basic story line, but fewer know that the emperor relied upon the teacher Alcuin to bring education and learning to the empire.

What does that have to do with temperence? "Both Charlemagne and Alcuin believed that when a country was filled with people using their minds in this way - for the good - that country would be peaceful and happy. ... The virtue of temperance helps you figure out how to do it: treating life with balance and always using the gifts God has given you for good, and not for evil and selfishness."

The biographical chapters are perfect for night-time reading, each taking about 10 minutes. We alternate between the "Heroes" book and Ms. Welborn's "Book of Saints". You can't go wrong with either (or both.)

The writing style in this book is one in which the author has a conversation about the who's and why's of the saints with the reader. Solidly Catholic and different enough in style to make it appealing to even reluctant readers. We read a lot of saint stories, but this book is in my son's room being read each night-and without force I may add. He's enjoying it as much as I did.

I would actually rate this 4.5 stars if Amazon had that option. The reason I can't give the book 5 stars are as follows: (1) the author does not use proper capitalization for pronouns referring to God (i.e. she uses "his" when it should be "His") and (2) the saints' feast days are not listed under the chapter title for easy liturgical year reference.

I really like how this book is organized by the 7 cardinal virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity, Temperance, Prudence, Fortitude, and Justice. I also think it includes a good mix of saints, blesseds, Biblical people, and other Catholics from throughout the ages. Some are very familiar such as Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Pope John XXIII, St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Patrick, St. Francis of Assisi, and so on. Others were unfamiliar to me having been raised in the post-Vatican II era and it's nice to learn their stories. The text is engaging and the author does a good job at presenting the stories in an age-appropriate manner (always a concern when dealing with the violence many of the saints had to endure).

This book is very well written and geared toward relating our beautiful Catholic saints to the lives of kids today. Amy Welborn knows children and manages to draw connections between decisions the saints had to make in standing up for their faith within the culture they lived, and how this same problem would present today. So the book helps to show how the virtues of the saints are attainable for us within the 21st century context. I love the book and I also learned a lot in reading it to my son.

This looks like a great resource, and we will continue to use it. I recommend you look over the material first. Be aware that the introduction includes the phrase, "They remembered how Jesus had been created by God in a special way inside Mary...." I do not think this was intentionally heretical, but one should be careful when speaking about Jesus, who was not created in any way whatsoever.

This book has seven sections, each based on a virtue--faith, hope, charity, temperance, prudence, fortitude and justice. Of the 37 heroes who excelled in these virtues, some are from the 20th century--St. Mary Faustina, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, and Maria Goretti. Each story is 3-4 pages long, and is introduced and written in a kid-friendly way. Good way to introduce children to real heroes!

I love, love this book. I read a chapter every morning with my daughters. Each chapter consist of 2-3 pages and covers one virtue very simply and thoroughly. It then goes on to tell a story of a Saint who applied that particular virtue to his/her life. Very good read for all ages. A book you can pick up at any time for inspiration.

This book does give a short sketch of each saint.
However, there are only black line drawings. Amazon
offers lots of other material about saints that are
better. The age group for this item is about 10-14 years.

Bought this for my son's first communion, and it is a great gift. It is larger than I expected, and it seems really interesting with pretty illustrations.