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This is a lovely gem of a book, covering about thirty saints, organized according to the calendar year, by their feast day. Like her previous publications from Bethlehem Books (Once Upon a Time Saints and More Once Upon a Time Saints), these stories are intended to capture the essence of holy men and women through the sometimes fantastical stories that are likely to capture the imagination of young children. Here is what the author wrote about her own stories:

Fairy tales clear the way for sanctity. They are the child's first morality play, clear-cut, no-nonsense black and white, good and evil, life and death - with a bit of fun thrown in to alleviate the pain. The lives of the saints, so filled with derring-do, gaiety, charm and courage, are all the more fantastic because the persons are real, even though they might seem right out of the pages of Hans Christian Andersen.

You will not find dates and statistics here, except where they seem necessary to explain how or why a saint got to his particular spot. And I have used the embroidery of legend because I feel that under its eye-catching trivia, there is the good homespun of fact. Sometimes it has been hard to discover which facts are the real facts. In reading six books about one saint, you may have as many versions of his or her death - he may have died on the battlefield, in the arms of a wife or son, pinned to a tree with seven arrows... or a combination of all three.

There was a little bit in the story of Juan Diego that bothered me (a little off on the Aztec story) and an aspect of the story of St. Nicholas that I thought pretty disturbing for young children. These little things make it probably better for a read-aloud with younger children (and really, it makes an excellent read-aloud!). A few spots made me furrow my brow or seemed just a little too silly, but these have been more than compensated for by some incredibly beautiful stories that are really well done.

One story that particular stood out for me was the one St. Paul Miki and St. Charles Lwanga. It has an absolutely stunning and incredibly appropriate explanation of the martyrs for children. Fabulous stuff and my children and I enjoyed the book very much.

Oh yes, and Ben Hatke's illustrations (he also illustrated Angel in the Waters by Regina Doman) are wonderful!

My children have always loved picture cards for learning about subjects - animals, art, flags, etc. I love it when the cards are fastened together in some way so that they don't get lost and thus rendered useless. Catholic Cardlinks: Patron Saints is just the sort of resource that makes everyone happy!

Children will love (I speak from experience with my own brood) to befriend the saints with this charming resource that they can so easily hold in their little hands. Each elongated cardstock sheet has a colorful sketch of a saint (48 saints in all) with a short biography. The pages fan out so that you can see all of the faces at once. Or open to one at a time and spend a little time reading about your favorites. When I leave this sort of book laying in reach of my little ones (especially the pre-readers), they will become acquainted with the pictures over time and find their favorites that they ask me to read about over and over. What a nice way to help young children develop a devotion to a favorite saint!

I'm also delighted to see such colorful and creative resources being published for young children.

Designed to be used in the classroom, Draw and Tell Saints could easily be adapted to be used in the home. Since we have a large dry erase board, I am always looking for creative ways to use it. Although the "teacher" is to draw the object of each story one piece at a time as she unfolds the story, I decided to change the role of the artist to the children to see what would happen and to keep them more involved. I would explain to the children what they should draw and then read my part of the story. To "test" their concentration to see if they were really listening and understanding what the story was about while they were intently drawing, I periodically asked questions.

If you follow the author's suggestions, the children guess what the artist is drawing, but hold their guesses until the end. Since we changed the role of the artist, this did not apply and my children seemed to figure out what the object was right away anyway.

In a home situation where there are few children, the teacher or children could draw the objects on paper instead of a large board. My children who drew on the board were 6 1/2 and 3 1/2. Surprisingly, the 3 1/2 year-old did not get frustrated with drawing the more simple objects, and enjoyed her artwork, although it looked far more primitive than her sister. With the more complicated objects, I drew the line first and she drew over it.

Now, I do want to be bluntly honest and admit I do not have any innate drawing ability. Therefore, if I can make these objects look pretty good, then anyone who is motivated to try will be capable of drawing the objects, but more importantly the children will hear a nice introduction to the various saints. After hearing about these important people, the children may be inspired to learn more about them. By listening to these interesting stories, they will have been learned some facts about their lives and the objects may remind the children of them.

After completing our drawings, we brought out the camera and took pictures of them to remember them and to have as a treasured keepsake. It was interesting to see a comparison of the different abilities according to age.

There are seventeen stories in this book. After completing the first few drawings, my children wanted to keep on going and begged to do more. My daughter, Kateri, who is 61/2 years-old said she likes it because she likes to guess who the story is about, read the words in bold print, and listen to the story. Last but not least, she likes the fact that she can draw the saint she is named after, Bl. Kateri. We hope to try the other titles in the series.

We have enjoyed using this manual in our home for almost a year now and have found that it has added a dimension that was lacking from our homeschool before. The author, a member of the congregation Sisters of Saint Joseph the Worker, has done an outstanding job organizing the saints of the Americas by chronology and geographical area. This manual includes saints from both North and South America. Sister Elizabeth Ann begins her book with reasons for studying these saints along with many ideas for incorporating them into ones ongoing historical or geographical studies. She includes information about the various religious orders and information on "How Saints are Made." Her excellent timeline includes key events and people in the history of the Americas with an astric noting where the saints fit into the overall picture. We have found this timeline to be invaluable. Outline maps, which are provided for each area, are easy for the children to trace and the biographies are long enough to provide important information but short enough that they could easily be woven into any history program. The workbook pages and activity sheets at the back of the book allow the student to spend extra time considering the saint's life and how they impacted history.

Litany offers two versions to play this game of 80 saint symbol cards (40 pairs). In the easier version, the object of the game is to match like cards as in the card game concentration. After finding two matching cards, the player calls out, “St. . . . , pray for us.” In the version of the game for older children, the game is slightly more complicated. Each game comes with 80 saint symbol cards, instructions, and a saint symbol information booklet that includes the name of the saint, when he or she lived, whether the saint was a martyr, bishop, confessor, etc., the symbol of the saint and why that symbol is associated with that saint.

When I see Ann Ball's name on a book, I expect a treat. This book is no exception. A Litany of Saints begins with an introduction to the Communion of Saints and Catholic practices regarding their veneration. This section is clear and easy-to-read, including the changes instituted as a result of the Second Vatican Council. The footnotes provide many sources for additional reading. Next comes a history of litanies in general and the text of the formal "Litany of the Saints". Following this is the bulk of the book: a fascinating, documented collection of information about 26 well-known saints as well as shorter summaries of 17 more saints. This book contains prayers, photographs, legends, and the stories of these saints. It is written in a titled-paragraph style that makes it easy to pick up, read a few pages, and put down again---perfect for a busy person to read in those few available minutes each day.

Do you know why we should ask the saints to pray for us? Do you know what happened to St. Christopher? Do you know who is the protector from cancer? If not, then you need to read this book and have your questions answered!

This is an interesting and helpful book of lists designed for parents and teachers interested in collecting Catholic stories (particularly saint stories) for their children and incorporating them into their school studies.

The first part of the book consists of listings of Catholic book series (both in and out of print), including titles with Catholic content that have been awarded the Caldecott Award and the Newbery Award, Catholic Readers, the Clarion Series, the Vision Series, American Background Books, Catholic Treasury Books and much more.

The main portion of the book (over 100 pages) includes historical and geographical charts of these books of interest (including separate listings for individual stories in the story collections). These charts provide information on where and when the story took place, what series it belongs to, whether it's in print or not and a general age recommendation.

Also included are extensive listings of Catholic authors and publishers of interest.

The appendix includes a helpful and detailed guide to collecting and caring for books.

I found this to be a very useful and well-organized book and I'm sure it's one I'll turn to again and again - particularly when doing school planning over the summer.

Saint Symbol Stickers could be used in a variety of ways from incentives or rewards on school workbook pages, or as fun accessories for a child’s stationary to liven up letters to a pen pal. They are great for boys or girls. A child could also make a mini saint book with a sticker per page and a short biography of the saint. The Saint Symbol Stickers could also be used for a history timeline. They could make saints days on a calendar. The possibilities are endless. What a great way to reinforce learning about the saints! Each package includes 80 ready-to-color saint symbol stickers representing 40 different saints. These are the same Saint symbols found in the games Litany and Bingo. Inexpensive and attractive, the Saint Symbol Stickers would make an ideal stocking stuffer.

This book is a companion to the Vision series of saint's biographies (also published by Ignatius Press). It is a wonderful help to extending the biographies into a full-blown unit study, if you wish, or just to help enrich the reading. For each of the 17 books covered in Saints of the Church , the author includes:

• an overview of the book
• vocabulary lists broken out by chapter
• quotations from the books called "Language in Context" that develop comprehension and illustrate various literary devices
• Time Line information
• Outline Map information
• Numerous topics for written reports on various levels
• Biographical sketches of other famous people in the book
• "Turning to Scripture and Catechism" which requires looking up various verses or topics in the Bible and the Catechism; this is done to "make connections between the saint's life and the living tradition of the Catholic Church."
• Discussion questions

This is a wonderful, well-organized, and thorough guide to really getting the most out of the Vision books...likely just the kind of thing we would do on our own if we had the time.