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Editor’s Picks (Mary Lynn Hendrickson)
Child's Guide to the Mass
by Sue Stanton and H. M. Alan
Like all the other “Child’s Guide” offerings from Paulist Press—Child’s Guide to Reconciliation
, Child’s Guide to First Holy Communion
and Child’s Guide To The Seven Sacraments
)—it engages kids because it’s playful, colorful and (most importantly) narrated by kids. Yet it doesn’t skimp on solid hands-on information, either.
A Walk Through Our Church
written and illustrated by Gertrud Mueller Nelson
A 10-year-old classic, also by Paulist, has children as tour guide and narrator too—describing the insides of a Catholic church with such clarity and grace that many adults should enjoy the experience as well.
Holy Mass Coloring & Activity Book
by Ancilla Christine Hirsch (Pauline Books & Media) Leave it to the Daughters of St. Paul—nuns who teach a wise use of TV instead of pulling the plug on modern culture—to come up with religious coloring books that aren’t hokey, old-fashioned, or overbearing. Another good one from them: Holy Eucharist Coloring & Activity Book
by Sisters Virginia Helen Richards and D. Thomas Halpin
Jesus With Us: The Gift of the Eucharist
by Anthony Tarzia
A kids’ history of the Eucharist, originally in Italian, published by Pauline Books & Media. Pictures so alluring and active you almost forget to read.
Sunday Morning
by Gail Ramshaw and Judy Jarrett (Liturgy Training Publications) A colorful, artistic romp through parts of the Mass that emphasizes the importance of worshiping together. Folk art images evoke not only the tribal togetherness of the ancient Hebrews but mix African and Latin American influences to suggest a more diverse tribe of us today. Also see Every Day & Sunday, Too
by the same team of author and illustrator, linking liturgical rituals with everyday life.
Also: Not about the Mass per se but some of the best children’s books that help foster a Catholic sensibility, making them good bring-along books for Sunday mornings…
The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name
by Sally Lloyd-Jones and Jago (Zonderkids). It’s taken a long time, but somebody has finally created an engaging children’s Bible that approaches the greatness of The Rhyme Bible Storybook
by Linda Sattgast. Based on illustration alone—the trick of depicting a cartoon-hewn Jesus who’s whimsical-yet-weighty—illustrator Jago wins.
Little Acts of Grace
by Rosemarie Gortler, Donna Piscitelli, and Mimi Sternhagen—as well as Just Like Mary
by the same team—gives a nonpreachy child-friendly view of so mant beloved traditions that color Catholicism’s expression of Christianity. (Our Sunday Visitor)
Child’s First Catholic Dictionary
by Richard W. Dyches, Thomas Mustachio, and Ansgar Holmberg. Concise, colorful, and complete it’s one of the best children’s dictionaries around—religious or not (Ave Maria Press).
Saints and Angels
by Claire Llewellyn (Houghton Mifflin). Gorgeous museum-quality prints that glorify our world’s great painters as well as our great saints. A kids’ book that adults will always covet.
Click here for more Mass books for children!
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