Catholic Stories for Boys and Girls

Book Cover: 'Catholic Stories for Boys and Girls, vol 1'
Number of pages: 
140 pages
Copyright: 
1995
Publisher: 
Neumann Press
Binding: 
Sewn Hardcover
Grade / Age level: 
Resource Type: 
Review: 

These charming readers, which are appropriate for a second grade reading level, contain "stories written and compiled in days long past by Catholic nuns in America and dedicated to Mary the Mother of God our dear Lady of the Miraculous Medal." My second grader (who is somewhat advanced in reading level) enjoyed these very much and polished off all four volumes in the first week of school - including one book which she read straight through without putting it down (she requested that I include that detail in the review). She really loves the small size and the beauty of the books themselves and has read them over and over.

I thought it was nice how the stories were so often inter-related as many of them were about the Sisters of Charity and some of their pupils, the founder St. Vincent de Paul, and other related saints, including St. Catherine Laboure and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. The books introduced my daughter to these saints and others (including St. Isaac Jogues and St. Edmund Campion) and she is now planning on working her way through the Vision Books and Mary Fabyan Windeatt titles about these saints.

The books would offer some good reading practice, a little more appealing than the older Catholic reading texts, while promoting Catholic virtues and tidbits from history. The numerous illustrations are black and white silhouette-like drawings.

Because the books were written for younger children many decades ago, they do display a slight amount of "twaddle" in a few places, along the lines of "'Tick, tock, tick, tock,' said the schoolroom clock as it looked down on the children reading and writing. It liked the French country children." Fortunately, most of the stories are not written in this style. Some parents don't like the way that souls are described as "black" or "white" instead of "in the state of sin" or "in the state of grace" because of the confusing connotations with regard to ethnic background (this also comes up in the Treasure Box Books). Also, although I don't think the authors intended it to come across this way, there is one story in the fourth book which appears to condone one boy beating up another for calling his brother a thief and for cursing. If I remember right, all of these possible objections are limited to the same story in the fourth book ("The Flowery Kingdom" starting on page 45).

Perspective: 
Catholic
Additional notes: 

4 volumes, 140 pages each

Reviewed by: 
First reviewed: 
10-02-2000