Customer Reviews

The Story of the Cross: The Stations of the Cross for Children

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

 

 

The GOOD:
1) One reviewer said they didn't like the illustrations in this book, but I really liked them. There are very colorful drawings, with characters with very expressive faces. I can see how these would appeal to children of all ages.

2) This book gives a five page history of the life of Christ, leading up to His condemnation and death. I found it helpful because it gives the Stations of the Cross some context for little ones who may not already know of the life of Jesus.

3) All 14 Stations are included, and have a short prayer/meditation after the stations conclusion. For example, at Station 3: "Jesus Falls for the First Time Under the Cross", the ending meditation reads: "Dear God, I try to follow Jesus, but sometimes I fail and fall. May I know in my heart that Jesus is always with me." I really loved and appreciated the wording in a lot of the meditations after some of the Stations. Many were very wonderfully worded and appropriate for the target age range of 2-7.

The BAD:
1) The Suffering of Jesus is minimized. There is no mention of blood or Christ bleeding anywhere in the text. Jesus wears a crown of thorns, but is not bleeding.
The 6th Station, Veronica wipes the Face of Jesus, says:
"Jesus could barely see the way ahead. His eyes were clouded with sweat. He tried to wipe it away but only smeared it with the dust from his hands. Then a woman stepped forward and gently wiped his face with a cloth."

There is no hint of a previous scourging or beating ( I am aware it's not part of the 14 Stations, but it is Biblical.), The illustrated Jesus merely has a sad look on his face and dirt on his clothes. He carries a heavy cross and falls three times. Then when he's nailed to the cross, the illustration goes from full color in the previous illustrations to a shadow-figure crucifixion on a faraway hill. I'm not advocating showing a realistic crucifixion scene in a children's book, but I am saying that it could have been done in a way to make the point that Jesus was bleeding, pierced and in pain without overdoing it.

In the 12th Station, "Jesus Dies Upon the Cross", the illustration is of Mary and John the disciple weeping alone. Where is Jesus??

If the reason for treatment of the crucifixion was that children would not be mature enough to handle death and suffering, why would you be reading a book of meditation on the Stations of the Cross?? By definition,the Stations of the Cross are about the suffering and death of Jesus Christ!!

2) The Higher Purpose for Jesus' Suffering is not mention. There is NO mention of Sin, Redemption or even of Jesus being the Savior or Messiah. Not once did it say that Jesus died for our sins or that He redeemed the world, was the Savior of the world, etc. With a subject like this, leaving out that very key point is just silly.

3) Going along with #2, is that this book ignores totally and completely Jesus' Divinity, that He was the Son of God. The text heavily implies that He was merely a good, innocent man who loved God, did God's will, and was put to death for no good reason.

The First Station says:
"What has Jesus done? He had come with stories and wisdom. He had come with healing and forgiveness. He had come to make people friends with God. But not everyone welcomed the things he said and the things he did. There were whispers and lies. There was anger and spite. Jesus was condemned to death."

Even the prologue to the Stations, (which I loved because it provided a good background to why the Passion of Christ was taking place) was flawed in this way because it never said that Jesus said He was the Messiah. But what it does say (paraphrased) is that Jesus did miracles and was treated like a hero, and for that, some were jealous and wanted to put Him to death.

There is a "conclusion" after the 14th Station that talks about the Resurrection and even the Ascension, but it too misses the mark. It just says that Jesus came back and appeared to His friends for 40 days and then "Jesus' friends saw him being taken up to heaven." On this page there is a picture of the resurrected Jesus breaking bread with other people, but sadly there are no nail marks on His hands indicating that He was crucified at all.

The overall feeling I had after reading the book is that children are to believe that Jesus was a good and righteous man who was falsely accused and put to death, and is someone that we should emulate...but not too differently than you would emulate Ghandi or Martin Luther King, Jr. Nothing to hint at the fact that He is the Third Peron in the Holy Trinity. Nothing at all to lead you to believe that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Unfortunately, I can't recommend this book. Devout Christians and Catholics, be forewarned. To salvage this book for our use this year during Lent (since I'm out the money anyway and don't want to give it away), I think we're going to let the kids look at the pictures (since I like them so much) and use other Stations of the Cross explanations and meditations we find online that are more appropriate.

As a kindergarten teacher in a Catholic School, I was looking for a book on this level to use with my class when we went to church to follow the Station of the Cross. I was extremely pleased with this one! The story of Jesus is explained in appropriate language for young children and the heartfelt prayers to be said at each station reflect the needs of children in this age group. The illustrations are beautiful,drawing on our emotions without being too graphic. The story includes the joy of Easter. I will use this book for many years, even with my own young children.

I used this book to present the stations of the cross for an art project during a palm saturday event for grades K - 5 (Episcopal). We read the book, discussed the prayer and either a child or a couple kids picked a station. They made cement stepping stones inlaid with colored glass for a lenten meditation garden with the prayers.

It's a simple, beautiful book with a powerful message for all ages. Worth its wieght in gold.

Our 5 1/2 yr olds love this book. The pictures are colorful and interesting as well as moving. The text brings the stations of the cross to them in a way they can really understand but doesn't dumb it down. It makes Easter more meaningful to them and generates discussion about Jesus. It is a great book for the whole family, really.

This book was integral to a Stations of the Cross service for the children. The prayers and readings are perfect for children to read to a group and pray together. I would add a walking prayer between stations--we used Holy God, Holy & Mighty, Holy Immortal One. St. Pauls Episcopal Church in Kennewick, WA has a traditional solemn Stations service on Good Friday. When we've tried to involve the children the service has proven too long and boring. Our goal this Lenten season was to create a Stations of the Cross service that lasts around 15 minutes and has simple prayers and readings. We wanted the material to be accessible and meaningful to the children while being faithful to the traditional service for the adults. The pictures also helped as the bas relief images on the wall can be cryptic for the little ones. This book compresses and simplifies the service. It held the children's attention from start to finish. We plan to re-use next year.

As a (trying to be) faithful Catholic, I have to say I have rarely been so disappointed in a religious text for which I had high expectations. I have sent a detailed two-page letter to the publisher and the catalog in which I saw it advertised describing my MANY, MANY theological and artistic complaints with this text. Wishy-washy, whitewashed, banal, toning down important events and people, ignoring other important events and people, and generally making the grand epic of our salvation into piece of beautifully (if incorrectly) drawn "eye candy" - all flash, lacking substance. I have a four and a two year old and I know what small children can understand. The message of salvation does not need to be, and should not be, "dummed down" to accommodate any age. I will agree that it is difficult to find quality materials presenting our faith well (especially Lenten materials) for little ones, but that doesn't mean we should settle for something inaccurate.

I got this when my child was 2 1/2. It describes the stations of the cross. Even if you are not Catholic this book is helpful in teaching children about what Jesus went through in order for us to have Easter, new life and eternal life. It is well written and the pictures are moving but not horrible in any way. I found that if you have a younger child you may want to break up the reading into chunks, and the book lends itself to this. Now that the child is older we may read the whole thing at once. It is wonderful too in the sense that it gets little people to pray in an earnest way alongside Jesus. Highly recommend it.

This book is excellent. Being a teacher I found it helps children understand, at their level, the steps, reasons & what happened along the way. Good language and images to keep the attention to detail for all ages.

This is not a good orthodoxed Catholic Book. First, the resurrection is not part of the stations of the cross. It lists this as a fifteenth station. Hello, that's not a station. Also, the book says Mary was alarmed. That is WAY off base. Mary was never alarmed. Theologically, the reaction Mary had verses Elizabeeth's husband are totally different. This book had HUGE potential as the graphics are well done. If this book held true to the faith, it would be a good buy. Mary Joslin, please read your catechism and learn the Catholic faith. I guess I should write a theologically correct book. In fact, look up Piscitelli and Gortler. They have 5 books out currently, each under $7 that are faithful and accurate.