Customer Reviews

Lucia, Saint of Light

5 star:		(4)
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3 star:		(1)
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Finally, a book that connects the Italian hymn about Santa Lucia, the Scandinavian festival and the American Girl Doll Kirsten!

Beautiful illustrations accompany a text that deftly weaves history and the present-day celebration. What's not to like about coffee and sweet pastry in bed!? And now we have the back-story on Kristen's crown of candles. If you have the American Girl doll this would be a perfect complement to her collection.

If you collect books on saints (nice to have something besides Tomie DePaola's wonderful books), or if you collect Christmas books, this is definitely one to get.

What a beautiful story about a saint I'd never heard of. If you're an Orthodox Christian, Swedish, or just love saints, you must buy this book. It's not only a lovely story about a woman who was martyred for Christ, but it's a parallel story about how we as modern-day Christians celebrate our namedays. The book starts out with a girl named Lucy who is celebrating her name day on St. Lucia day, and the book follows her along on her journey, with vivid illustrations that my son loved. (He kept pointing at the candles on her head; if you read the book you'll know what they're for).
Lucia Saint of Light is a wonderful book for children to learn about traditions and Orthodox customs and how we celebrate namedays, while learning the story of someone who died for her faith.
I wish I had a book like this growing up, and just bought 5 copies for friends' children on Christmas.

"Lucia Saint of Light" is a lovely children's book detailing the background story of the life of Saint Lucia of Syracuse, celebrated in Sweden with an annual feast day on December 13. The story is told from the viewpoint of Lucy, a young girl whose parents came from Sweden, and who is the family's Lucia in this year's celebration. Lucy's parents tell her the story of the original St. Lucia, born in Sicily in the late third century. All the pages are accompanied by beautiful, delicate pastel illustrations of the details of Lucia's life. The book is completed with verses from Aposticha for the Feast of Saint Lucia, a recipe for Lussekatter (Lucia Cat Buns), and a list of other resources. "Lucia Saint of Light" is intended for an audience of children age 6 and up.

I'm amazed at how much information is available in this picture book format without the text being overly long... It's actually a fairly quick read--Miss Hyde has found some magic ability, being able to weave the story of the third century martyr and the life that she led growing up in Sicily, along with the later legends of Lucia visiting Sweden during the time of terrible famine. A truly inspiring story for young girls (not necessarily toddlers, but ages five and up) and with a recipe for Lucia Cats at the back along with a hymn to the saint and a page of lyrics and the accompaniment as well. Very fun--and the detailed illustrations are worth studying, with lots of whimsy hidden in the pencil drawings...

Don't wait for Lucia's feast day in December to pick up a copy...

Over all this is a good book and explains a ton! I am just having trouble with the way the author worded something. The book reads "St. Agatha appeared to her and told her God was pleased with her disire to remain a virgin." Couldn't she just say 'pleased with her desire to not marry'?
The way I have defined virgin for my young children is being pure/clean, so if I were to read it to them they way the author wrote it and the way I have define virgin for them, it would not really make sense in the context of the story. So, I used my own words to make sense of it when I read it to my children.
I am still deciding if I am keeping it. It is getting tricky explaining "virgin" to children in our beautiful Catholic faith!