Customer Reviews

New Picture Book of Saints: Illustrated Lives of the Saints for Young and Old, Saint Joseph Edition

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a homeschooling family with 6 children, this book has been used frequently. It is a classic. Fr. Lovasik carefully, and concisely, relates the stories of true Christian heros. The illustrations on every page are lovely. This book inspires readers to live the virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
Our children have enjoyed this book immensely. It also makes a great gift.

I'm not catholic but this book is really neat.It has
information & nice illustraitions of over 100 saints.
Even though I don't pray to the saints or ask for
them to intercede for me,it's just inspiring to read
about these martyrs,angels,priests,nuns,monks,& a
lot of others who lived a godly life.

I grew up reading this book, and it gives a succinct biography of a bunch of popular Saints along with interesting illustrations. I read some reviews about how this book is racist, but those people are taking things way out of context. It speaks of slavery as an abhorrent disgrace to humanity as the Saints tried to help these people. It refers to Martin de Porres as a son of a "Negro, or Indian, mother." While perhaps a little outdated, it is merely historical and not offensive in the least. No I am not black, but the whole black PC stuff drives me absolutely nutso. I bought this book for my children, and if you want to point it out to your child and explain, go ahead. But it never occurred to me as a child growing up, and I don't think it undermines the greatness of this Saint book. From reading these short bios, I could choose what Saints I liked the most and read more about Saints like St Therese and St Catherine of Siena in other books.

This book has lovely illustrations and beautiful stories of holy men and women who have served the Lord in their lives. The content and length of stories is just right for children, and I also enjoy the short prayer included with each Saint story. This is a wonderful book!

Here is the full text of the Saint's story in question:
"Peter Claver was a Spanish Jesuit. He was sent to Cartagena in South America where he spent forty years in this great slave market of the West Indies, laboring for the salvation of African Negroes. He consecrated himself by vow to the salvation of those ignorant and miserable people, and he called himself "the slave of the slaves." He was their apostle, father, physician, and friend. When news arrived of a slave ship coming into port, Peter would go on board at once and bring comfort to his dear slaves. He fed and clothed them and nursed them with the greatest tenderness in their ugly diseases. It is said that he baptized forty thousand Negro slaves before he went to his reward in 1654. Peter would say, "We must speak to them (the Negroes) with our hands by giving before we try to speak to them with our lips." He organized charitable societies among the Spanish people in Cartagena just as St. VIncent de Paul did in Paris. Prayer: O God, You conferred on St. Peter Claver a remarkable love and patience to help Your enslaved people and bring them to a knowledge of Your Name. Through his intercession, help us to seek equality for all races."

Good collection of saints with brief discussions of their lives and colorful pictures. We will enjoy having this book in our library.

I bought this as a gift for my daughter to read and use as a reference. The pictures are more cartoonish than the cover leads you to believe. It's more reference, less story. She just can't seem to get interested in the stories because they don't have enough information. The book needs updated too. In one of the stories, I was surprised at the old fashioned reference to an African, now considered offensive by some people. Don't these books get PC updated once in a while?

The book itself is beautiful. The Semi-Hardcover is a lovely and unexpected touch. The pictures inside are beautiful as well; a bit hyped-up perhaps, but beautiful. If you are Catholic, this is the book for you. I was raised Catholic. I am Protestant now and this is STILL a wonderful book. The writing is VERY Catholic, which is no surprise.

The only thing I noticed that I did not like is that nearly every saint featured sought to become a priest or a nun at an early age. The only saint that was ever married (St. Rita), WANTED to become a nun but married and had a family only to please her mother. This suggests that the Catholic church places such a high value on religious service (being a priest or a nun) that you are less good if you are not a priest or a nun. I completely dis-agree with that idea. If you are a good parent, or you treat other people in a good way, YOU are a good person for that. This world of ours can use all the good people it can get and we should all do our best to be that good person. Who says you have to be a PRIEST or a NUN to be that good person. Well, the Catholic church kinda does.

This is a beautiful book and it makes lovely reading. It leaves you with the feeling that there ARE good people in the world. Most of the people were plain, ordinary people, who were good and nice, at a time when most were not. This is the main thing that made these people different from the rest.

But, don't let this book trick you into thinking that PRIESTS and NUNS are the only good people in this world.

(I guess the Pope won't be sending ME a birthday card anytime soon)

Thank You for taking the time to read this.

I bought this book for my niece/goddaughter for Christmas. I was flipping through it before I wrapped it and was appalled. Please read the description of Saint Peter Claver, the "Patron of the Negro Missions" on page 85. It says that St. Peter "labor[ed] for the salvation of African Negroes. He consecrated himself by vow to the salvation of those ignorant and miserable people" and "He fed and clothed them, and nursed them with the greatest tenderness in their ugly disease." Really, author? It sounds like St Peter Claver did wonderful work, but calling Africans "ignorant and miserable people" with "ugly disease" is blatantly racist. I have not read the entire book, but this is enough for me to return it. I don't even consider myself the most "PC" person, but I don't want my niece to be exposed to this sort of language. I will find another book of saints that tells of their glorious deeds in a way that shows dignity to every human person.

This is one of the worst books that I have read. I would not recommend it to anyone. It is abusive and gives the wrong opinion of the saints.