Customer Reviews

Loyola Kids Book of Saints

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I teach second-grade Religious Education at our local parish. I first saw this book at the library and thoght it might be fun to start a class feature called "Saint of the Week." It quickly became the kids' favorite part of the weekly class. The accounts of the lives of these Saints are all lively and interesting enough to keep the class's attention, and the author still manages to be reverent in tone. Older kids, I am sure, would also enjoy the stories, which are long enough to contain some very interesting details, but not so long as to lose the audience's attention. Then again, how can you lose a class's attention when you tell them the true story of, for example, St. Thomas More or St. Joan of Arc?

Amy Welborn has produced an excellent book that brings the lives of the Saints to children at a level they can enjoy and understand. I read a variety of stories and literature to my two sons' before they fall asleep each night. However, we often decide to read a couple stories from the Loyola Kids Book of the Saints. They are just the right length for our nightly ritual. Each story begins with a short moral dilemma or question that children can get their heads around. Then the story of a particular Saint is used to help them work through the question. The stories are always interesting, sometimes heroic, often are poignant. We especially enjoyed the stories about St. Nicholas and St. Wenceslaus this past Christmas season.

I would actually rate this book 4.5 stars if Amazon had that option. The reason I can't give it 5 stars is that the author does not use proper capitalization when using pronouns referring to God (i.e. "his" when it should be "His"). Also, there is some other ungrammatical language that is clearly a deliberate attempt to appeal to modern kids but that really bothers me. I know Ms. Welborn can write proper English, and as a home educator that's what I expect in the books aimed at impressionable young minds.

The stories are very engaging, and there is a good mix of familiar and unfamiliar saints and blesseds from throughout the ages. I like the organization by theme- "saints are people who...(love children, teach us new ways to pray, help the poor and sick, change their lives for God, etc.)" The author does a good job presenting the stories in an age-appropriate manner, which is always a concern given the violence many of the saints had to endure.

This is my 8 year old son's favorite book! I have learned a lot from it as well! The book is chalk-full of 3-4 page stories about saints from all times. The stories are framed with an introduction that kids can relate to from their own lives and concluded with a short question to expand discussion between children and parents about how the saint's virtues can relate to the child's life. The saint stories are engaging, insightful, and well written with children in mind. This book is the best resource I have found for expanding a child's knowledge of the Catholic religion as well as his or her character virtues.

A year or so ago when I was visiting a friend in Newport, Rhode Island, he took me to one of his favorite watering holes. I believe the name of the place was O'Brien's. It was trivia night, and though the contest was half-over, we decided to participate.

Through a combination of luck, relative sobriety, and a meager knowledge of history, we managed to come from behind and win the contest. The final question concerned "the inventor of the alphabet used by Russians and other Eastern European peoples."

A few months before, we had read as a family from Amy Welborn's excellent "Kids Book of Saints" about Cyril and Methodius, and I knew that Cyril was the man behind "Cyrillic."

A member of the second-place team must have thought we were trivia hustlers. "How do you know that!?" He continued to badger my friend and me until we paid our bar-tab and more or less slunk away with our ten-dollar gift certificate award.

And that is how Amy Welborn nearly caused a bar-fight in Newport, Rhode Island.

In your aad the book is full of colors that would appeal to children. I was very disappointed to see that the inside of the book contains only black & white imqages. The content is good.

This book is written in a style that can be read by 9yrs and up and read and re-told as a story to younger children. The text brings the saints to life by challenging readers to relate their own choices to the choices the saints made. Good book.

I just wanted to add a note that the very first saint in the book is St. Nicholas, and the revelations provided could spoil the fun of Christmas morning for some families.

I teach Catholic kindergarteners and first graders on Sunday mornings and this book is absolutely fantastic for helping them learn more about the saints.

This book drew my attention because of the kid-friendly introduction to the saints' lives. It is artfully written in a way for the kids to relate to the saints' personal experience. I like that it is not syrupy sweet, like the books I used to read when I was younger. The author uses modern vocabulary and poses thought-provoking questions for the young readers. I appreciate that the more well-known saints of the early centuries and more contemporary (recently canonized) saints are included in this collection. My students (those who have actually read it) have had a very positive reaction to the book. Highly recommended!