Our Lady of Fatima: May Giveaway!

I've often felt disgruntled that there is what I opine to be a great emptiness in the picture book world regarding Our Lady of Fatima. Guadalupe enjoys at least three excellent options as far as I can tell (like this, this, or this) plus a couple other 'good' options. Meanwhile, Fatima is left quite in the dust. I own the book Jacinta's Story and it is pretty good and really one of the only picture book options that I know of. But it's not one that I read in one sitting to the children. It's best broken into a few days' reading during Morning Basket time because the story is fairly extensive. Still hoping for a simple breakdown of the story at a young, elementary level.

Thankfully, there are a number of chapter books that do the story justice. And it's a story that needs to be told to people of all ages.  The Children Of Fatima: And Our Lady's Message to the World is one of the best options on the market in my opinion, and it suits reading aloud quite nicely. May is the perfect month to devote to Our Lady and her message to both the children and to the world.

TAN Books has graciously offered to sponsor a giveaway of this book by Mary Fabyan Windeatt in honor of Our Lady and her upcoming feast day this month. The awesome thing is that while TAN publishing is known for their older, more traditional titles, they are making efforts to keep things fresh and relevant to families even today. In development right now are some workbooks that go along with the books in this series and the accompaniment designed for The Children Of Fatima will be one of the first ones done!  (Sneak peak coming soon hopefully!)

In the meantime, there will be 3 winners in this giveaway who receive a copy of this book! All you have to do is comment on one way, simple or extravagent, your family tries to celebrate the month of May in your home. You have until Mother's Day to enter.  This Sunday, the 10th.  Blessings!

****Closed! We have three winners! Pre-literate Henry was asked to circle 3 names on the list: Congrats to the Holloway family,  Erin and Monica!****

Just for Today...

In one of my rare moves, I made an immediate and full-priced purchase of the newest book by Bimba Landmann (I had been saving my Amazon card points!): Just For Today, which is the title of the famous decalogue by Pope St. John XXIII.  She's been one of my absolute favorite illustrators ever since I discovered her other titles like Clare and Francis, A Boy Named Giotto and others.

I tried looking up the history of the prayer, because its origin isn't universally accepted and several adaptations of the prayer exist, one is in use by AA.  Here is a common one:

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1. Just for today, I will seek to live the livelong day positively without wishing to solve the problems of my life all at once. 
2. Just for today, I will take the greatest care of my appearance: I will dress modestly; I will not raise my voice; I will be courteous in my behavior; I will not criticize anyone; I will not claim to improve or to discipline anyone except myself.
3. Just for today, I will be happy in the certainty that I was created to be happy, not only in the other world but also in this one.
4. Just for today, I will adapt to circumstances, without requiring all circumstances to be adapted to my own wishes.
5. Just for today, I will devote ten minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul.
6. Just for today, I will do one good deed and not tell anyone about it.
7. Just for today, I will do at least one thing I do not like doing; and if my feelings are hurt, I will make sure that no one notices.
8. Just for today, I will make a plan for myself: I may not follow it to the letter, but I will make it. And I will be on guard against two evils: hastiness and indecision.
9. Just for today, I will firmly believe, despite appearances, that the good providence of God cares for me as no one else who exists in this world.
10. Just for today, I will have no fears. In particular, I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful and to believe in goodness. Indeed, for twelve hours I can certainly do what might cause me consternation were I to believe I had to do it all my life.
    
    

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And I think that is a fantastic prayer for meditation.

Bimba Landmann's style isn't one that everyone will immediately appreciate. She has a whimsy to be sure... but not a fun, cutesy, whimsy like Elisa Kleven that everyone adores... Bimba's is more ethereal and almost Byzantine influenced. In this book, for example, the pictures are gorgeous but aren't always a perfect correlation with the text at first glance. There's a boy (who is he? The young pope?) who seems to be living in some kind of Turkish or Muslim-inspired seaside village.  And he has, um... a pet reindeer... I think that's what it is at least.

Yet despite these oddities, it all somehow fits.  And it makes the prayer's meditative quality shine through to not have such literal illustrations.

Brother Hugo and the Bear for Lent!

For Valentine's Day this year, I gifted each of my children a "one free book" coupon and they got to select ANY book they wanted to have shipped to them (all second hand "Like New" copies, to keep it cost effective and I retained veto powers of course...)  With just a hint of guidance, my three year old saw the picture of Brother Hugo and the Bear and declared proudly that it was to be his choice. Yes!

The book came and immediately I fell in love with it. It is a story imagined by Katy Beebe from one tiny little line in a real, historical letter that comments this:

"And send to us, if you please, the great volume of letters by the holy father Augustine, which contains his letters to Saint Jerome, and Saint Jerome's to him. For it happens that the greater part of our volume was eaten by a bear."

The book is not Catholic per se. But it is decidedly real and fresh in the dealings with 100% of the characters being monks (except the bear) and the work they do being authentic to that time period.  It opens up, fittingly on Lent as poor Brother Hugo has to recopy the entire manuscript he lost... which makes for a proper seasonal penance. Illustrations are exceptionally well done by Steve Schindler for the book and the illuminated lettering mimics the style (in a nouveaux way) of the medieval masters. 

The book would be a great unit study builder for all things medieval... especially cloistered life, illuminated letters, manuscript making and the 12th century in general. I am going to pair it with a viewing of that oddly strange and beautiful period movie: The Secret of Kells. If I was really motivated, I'd figure out some sort of illuminated letter lesson but I'm pretty sure all our markers are currently lost in heater return vents or chewed up by the puppy. So that may need to wait...  

All in all, I'm delighted to have this book and use it as Lenten reading (not in a pious way, but at least in a relevant, fun way) and highly recommend it to those who are interested in bringing the Middle Aged, monastic life alive for their children. Probably my best picture book purchase in a long time...

Check out this hypnotic video showing the start to finish illustrations, set to chant... 

Noah's Ark by Francesca Crespi!

Of course! Of course!  Why hasn't it been done before?!  The story of Noah's ark presented in a pop-up book?!  It makes beautiful sense...  and who better to give it the elegant razzle-dazzle than the talented Francesca Crespi?!  The pop-up master who's stayed quietly out of the picture book world since her last title in 2008.

We missed you Francesca!  I mean, we did have the wonderful Robert Sabuda to keep us busy with his recent releases of pop-up fairy tales. (A special shout out for his stunning adaptation of The Little Mermaid where he artfully and tastefully deals with mermaid nudity and provides intricate pages within the pages. You've got to see his very cool mermaid-fin to leg transformation!!!)  But Francesca dear... you hold a special place of honor in the world of paper crafting authors...

I have yet to see the actual pages, but already the book has leaped to the top of my "luxury item that I don't need but would love to have" wish list.

Can't wait to see it!!!

The Thornbush

As I've said before, my Lenten and Easter book picks are pretty slim.  There are a couple glorious Easter books that tell the story of Easter, but really there isn't a whole lot out there that is specifically seasonally related like the way there is for Christmas. New to our basket this year is The Thornbush which tells of the little bush that ended up providing the crown of thorns for Jesus' head. So, I'm not in LOVE with the book.  I am, however, in LIKE with the book.  The concept makes up for where the actual storytelling may lack, and Jesus isn't TOO Caucasian looking (I always roll my eyes at our ethnocentrism.) at least. Most of all, it offers a different perspective from the scene of Christ's passion and I loved the ending line about how his crown was far greater than gold or silver. The personification of the bush felt a little weird to me… although I don't know why since I have no problem with trees being personified or flowers being personified in the same seasonal genre. Maybe because no one ever talks about bushes?  There is something more aesthetically palatable about trees and flowers that feel?  I don't know. Whatever the case may be, I am glad to have purchased this book for a new angle on the Easter story.  I have and love Wildsmith's Easter Story of course (THE best) and also Fiona French's Easter for the actual tale of Easter (need to get my hands on some Inos Biffi books), but no really great corollary, non-religious stories in the Easter season except Rechenka's Eggs, and a couple other egg titles. The nice thing about The Thornbush is that it's a useful story to illustrate the 3rd Sorrowful Mystery also… so it doesn't have to be specifically an Easter title.  Some pictures:

Saint John Bosco: The Friend of Children and Young People

Our "saint of the month" for January is St. John Bosco (feast day: January 31). I've grown to have quite an affection for this man who was such an amazing inspiration for youth in his time.  In reading more and more about him, I've started to look to him for a lot of our homeschooling philosophy too.   I love quotes like these:

"Without confidence and love, there can be no true education."

"The teacher who is seen only in the classroom and nowhere else, is a teacher and nothing more; but let him go with his boys to recreation and he becomes a brother."

"Frequent Communion and daily Mass are the two pillars of education."

"[I have] always tried to enlighten the mind while ennobling the heart."

"Do you want to do a good deed? Teach the young!
Do you want to perform a holy act? Teach the young!
Do you want to do a holy thing? Teach the young!
Truly, now and for the future, among holy things, this is the holiest."

But I digress.  This is my blog; I'm allowed to digress.  Anyway, we picked up a small book at our parish library to read about Don Bosco this month and I was happily surprised at its digestibility.  See, I'm due any day now with my 6th baby (pray for me!!!) and this is currently one or our "low tide" seasons in homeschooling.  Latin lessons are on hold. Formal science is out.  It's very basic morning basket time, and then individual math work and copywork.  Maybe a cool Loch Ness Monster documentary in the afternoon…  but frankly this is all I have energy for right now.  Real life will hopefully fill in the gaps but for now, we are busy tidying the home, running errands, readying the nest and resting aching joints to get ready for this babe.  You can expect a winter slowdown on this blog too.

So, like I said, I was happy to not have to devote hours and hours to a biography on Don Bosco.  He isn't exactly the St. Francis of Assisi to the picture book world either so I was happy to find a little, colorful 65 page story about him from Paulist Media.

Saint John Bosco : The friend of children and young people tells the story from his childhood on up to his death and is both enjoyable and thorough in the process.  You could read it in one sitting, but we have chosen to make it a two-day read, stopping halfway about when he enters adulthood.  The pictures are engaging enough and so far it is holding the attention of my 4-11 year olds… quite a span!

Here are some pictures of the inside of the book to give you an idea of what to expect.

Saint Felix and the Spider

Another new book by Dessi Jackson came out a few weeks ago!  This one is Saint Felix and the Spider and tells the story of how this saint befriended a little spider who went on to save him from soldiers hunting him down. It's a fun little legend and would be excellent if you have a child named Felix and want to find SOMETHING… ANYTHING on his namesake! Or even if you just like to keep saint books on hand for feast days (January 14th in this case).  The illustrations are pretty good all around, fairly simple but bright and vibrant. It is so difficult to find good saint books on lesser-known saints and I'm very willing to seek these out!  This is the same author who brought us the very fun Saint and his Bees story recently too.  I hope there is more coming from her!

It's really too bad that these aren't offered in hardcovers (not sure if these small-time publishers can even offer that?) because they are great additions to a Catholic child's bookshelf!

The Jesse Tree in Picture Books

**** updated: 11/2014, new comments in RED****
Be sure to check out the alternate and more concise version of this list here.

I had an ambitious project in mind this year before Advent begins. Normally we do our readings for each day of the Jesse Tree straight from a Children's Bible.  But I wanted to up our game. So I did some initial browsing online to see if it was even possible. It was. I could find a picture book for every individual Bible reading for each of the days of Advent! Mind = Blown.

I got many of my initial title inspirations from this kind mama where she lists a book for each of December's days. But in our home, we do Jesse Tree a bit differently so I adjusted quite a bit for our purposes.  First of all, we observe Advent for the full 21-28 days depending on the year. Some folks keep it simple and just do Jesse Tree readings beginning Dec. 1st. Secondly, I wasn't willing to find a picture book just to have a picture book of a certain story.  It had to be good, which means most serial Bible story sets need not apply. Third, beginning on December 17th, we switch completely to the Antiphons. So the last Bible story we read about is the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth before going to the beautiful Messianic titles of Christ (heard in the song "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"). It would have been far too difficult to find picture books for THOSE, so we just go back to the simple Bible verse and prayer until Christmas Eve when we will read over the original Nativity story (picture book or straight from the Bible) itself.

So in reality, I needed a full 21 individual stories (28 - 7 Antiphons = 21 stories for the longest year of Advent.) On shorter Advent years, we may read more than one story a night (i.e. all the Moses readings work nicely to combine or separate) or skip one altogether.

The downside to this project is that finding picture books—quality picture books—for the stories I wanted to include was a big challenge. Huge actually. There are a myriad of cheap, saccharine-looking Bible story books on the market. But with enough hunting and scavenging and library holding… it was just about possible to find worthy books for my tastes! There are only a couple stories with which I'm not 100% satisfied, so my hunt continues.  Now, I had a couple of these titles already; many others were found at the library. Others were purchased at cheap out-of-print prices. Only one was splurged on at full price. So doing the Jesse tree with picture books is possible! But I admit that its a bit of a luxury; maybe start by acquiring just a few titles a year to supplement your regular readings.

Here's what we have going on for a full 28 day Advent. This year, 2013, the season is only 24 days so we're doing Moses all in one day and Joseph all in one day. I'll probably skip Elijah altogether. I recently found a couple more stories that are NOT on this particular compendium but you may want to substitute in somewhere if you happen to have an easier time finding them than some of these others:

BALAAM'S ASS: I didn't realize there was a good picture book version of this drama-comedy until I stumbled upon The Donkey's Story by Barbara Cohen, thinking it must be a Christmas story at first. But I was pleasantly surprised.  Then I found another one I liked even better in  The Angel and the Donkey! There is a third story on this which I haven't seen but it is part of an old vintage series that I would LOVE to have in its entirety: Balaam and his Ass .

JOSHUA: Joshua Crosses the Jordan is a reader book but it looks like it could be pretty good.  It's done by the same pair who did the Elijah title below. 

 

Jesse Tree Booklist

Day 1: The Story of Creation. The best I found on this is Gennedy Spirin's Creation. I'm looking forward to Archbishop Tutu's yet to be released Let There Be Light (update 11/14: I've seen it now and not really a fan.). But so far, Spirin's story is both the most simple, most beautiful (well God does look a little bit intimidating but I can overlook that) and most faithful to the original Bible text.
Day 2: Adam & Eve and the Fall. I am currently using Fiona French's Paradise for the story of the Garden of Eden. I previewed a few others and either didn't like the text or was uncomfortable with the full, frontal nudity. I loved everything about Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden except for the overt nudity and as my three oldest are boys… I just would rather avoid that ogling temptation. Other families might feel differently. The nudity is in context after all, and one good mama suggested that she has no problem employing the Sharpie marker to lengthen Eve's hair or some-such in these situations. But this particular Jane Ray book was a library one… and I wasn't willing to purchase something that needed at least two pages of obvious modification. In French's book, there are two pictures of Eve's breasts; they are pretty benign considering the art is clearly stained glass-style unreal.
(I thickened an arm shadow to cover the nipple on one page and had the audacity to draw in a blackbird on Eve's arm for the other page!  It might be a little ridiculous… my kids probably won't notice the alterations at all. But I feel better anyway.) I wish the story went a little more into detail about Eve tempting Adam and the confrontation; it also ends on a somber note of simply the Garden being closed.  In short, it's not perfect but I do like most of it...
Day 3: Noah and the Ark. Despite the many versions of this story, the clear-cut winner is hand's down Jerry Pinkney's Noah's Ark.
Day 4: The Tower of Babel. I was very happy to see that a great and vibrant story exists on this: (albeit, out of print…) You can read my review on it at amazon. The Tower of Babel.
Day 5: The Promise to Abraham. I ran into some trouble here. I settled on a typical series-version book for the stories of Abraham and Isaac but it's not anything worth writing about.  I really wanted to get my hands on Sarah Laughs but wasn't able to budget it in this year… (update 11/14: got it and love it) and it still left me with the problem of...
Day 6: Isaac and Abraham. There IS The White Ram: A Story of Abraham and Isaac but I thought it strayed too far into the fanciful and I really want to keep our readings focused and reverent. So, until I find some better options, I'll be reading from our mediocre story book for Abraham and Isaac.
Day 7: Jacob and Esau. Done very well in this book: Jacob and Esau.
Day 8: Joseph.  This is one of those stories that can be broken into two days: the early story of The Coat of Many Colors and the later story involving his brother'' reconciliation in Benjamin and the Silver Goblet or you find the whole story done well in Joseph.
Days 9 & 10: Moses. This covers the individual stories of the baby in the basket, the 10 plagues and parting of the sea, and the 10 Commandments. We can read it in sections. There are a few different options that have the whole Moses story but the one I liked the most was done by Margaret Hodges and Barry Moser: Moses. I may also throw in parts from Wildsmith's Exodus just to change it up a bit.
Day 11: Ruth.  I finally got The Story Of Ruth and think it's a necessary addition to the Jesse Tree. I'll be shortening the Moses stories to include this one!  It's a great lesson in fidelity and devotion.
Day 12: Samuel. I was surprised to find The Story of the Call of Samuel! It's a pretty well done version of the story. I just wonder why there aren't other decent picture books on even more interesting Bible figures like Samson, Joshua, Elijah, and others…
Day 13: David and Goliath.  The best version I was able to find was David and Goliath.
Day 14: Esther. I really, really love the Esther book we use for this day! Queen Esther Saves Her People is just sooo good.  If you can't borrow or purchase this one, there are other decent versions out there. I'd settle for The Story of Esther: A Purim Tale if it weren't for the other one.
Day 15: Solomon. I wasn't thrilled with the couple of books I previewed on Solomon's riddles and such. I wanted a general idea of his kingship and justice.  So I bought the compilation picture book: Kings and Queens of the Bible and am pretty happy with it. Alternately, you can find a lovely tale of his testing by Queen Sheba in The Wisest Man in the World, complete with illustrations by the excellent Anita Lobel.
Day 16: Elijah.  I desperately wanted to find a good picture book on Elijah because I think he's an important prophet and his story is neat enough to visualize.  Instead I found Journeys with Elijah: Eight Tales of the Prophet at the library which is a collection of legends.  The book is nice but the only useful part to me for my purposes is the introduction which tells the actual story of Elijah. So I'm still on the hunt for a stand-alone picture book on this man. (update 11/14: There is a wonderful and excellent story to be found in Elijah and the Fire from Heaven but it is "very" out of print and used copies in good shape are hard to find. I'll write more about this in a separate post. I did notice a reader book called Elijah and King Ahab but haven't had a chance to personally preview it yet.  It is cheap though and looks like "inoffensive" art; I'd buy it if I didn't have the other one.)
Day 17: Jonah.  I was really, really pleased with Jonah and the Whale. I looked at a few different versions of this story but was really discouraged by the twaddle and the unfaithful retellings out there.  This one is really good…
Day 18: King Belshazaar and the Writing on the Wall. I admit that this wasn't my first pick on stories to include in our Jesse Tree traditions but I wasn't able to identify any good books for the stories I DID want.  So this will suffice.  I found this story in the Kings and Queens of the Bible book again.
Day 19: Daniel in the Lion's Den. I only got to see a couple story books with this tale in it (indeed there are only a couple) and the best one out there is definitely Daniel and the Lord of Lions.
Day 20: The Annunciation and Visitation. I have the book Mary by Brian Wildsmith but de Paola's Mary: The Mother of Jesus is pretty great too. (also, let's not forget the strange and wonderful book by Inos Biffi The Life of Mary to use for these stories also.) 

Days 21-27: The Antiphons

Day 28 (Christmas Eve): The Nativity.  There are a number of decent versions of the Nativity told in picture book form. I like ones that use the actual words from the Bible. I'm using Francesca Crespi's The Nativity because I already had it and it's a nice, special, pop-up touch to the end of the Advent season for my kids. Other worthy titles are: The Christmas Story, Bethlehem, and Christmas Story.

Happy reading!

*Addendum

Why do the Jesse Tree at all?  For us, it's to give the FULL Christmas story… to remember the beginning of salvation history. I love this thought from then-Cardinal Ratzinger (1986):

     "Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory and hope which is so necessary to man. Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. 
     The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart’s memory so that it can discern the star of hope.…

     It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope."

The Saint and His Bees

November 1st is All Saints Day.  I like to introduce one new saint book into our collection on that day as a gift to my children.  This usually means finding a used copy of a saint book throughout the year at some point and hiding and saving it for that day.  Occasionally, in mid October, I do an online hunt for a particular book I've had my eye on and buy it used.  Rarely, is there a new, worthy saint book published that gets bought right away. This year, however, there was!  I took a gamble on The Saint and his Bees because I didn't know anything about it. All I knew was that I absolutely loved illustrator Claire Brandenburg's other book The Monk Who Grew Prayer.  I have been reluctant to purchase other titles of hers simply because she writes not explicitly Catholic books... but Orthodox.  Without going into history details, there is a fine distinction between the two faiths and while I respect Orthodox believers very much, I don't make a point of venerating their saints specifically (pre-schism: the Catholic and Orthodox churches share the same saints... so I always double check to make sure the book being written by an Orthdodox author is about a saint who lived prior to the 11th century or so. There are exceptions: I did buy the book The Wonderful Life of Saint Sergius of Radonezh after researching that St. Sergius was indeed also recognized by the Roman Catholic Church...)

Anyway,  onto this year's gift to my children: a story about St. Modomnoc (aka: St. Dominic), an Irish monk and student of St. David of Wales in the 6th century. It tells of his bond with the monastery's bees and the legend of how bees were introduced into Ireland because the swarm  didn't want to let their dear monk go when he had to return to the island... so they followed him!  Illustrated in Brandenburg's classic, rough, quirky style, the story is sweet and fun and a great addition to our collection.  I'll have to do some updating to my listmania lists in this category. I only wish it (and The Monk Who Grew Prayer) was available in hardback!  Such a pity to have lovely stories vulnerable to my ravishing, rowdy-handed children!  I just have to be extra careful...  :-)

St. Francis of Assisi meets Bimba Landmann

On Oct. 4th we celebrate the feast day of St. Francis of Assissi.  I would guess that there is no other saint in existence who has more picture books dedicated to him; he is the saint for all peoples.  What's not to love about the peaceful man?  You will find St. Francis statues in nature lover's gardens and you'll find New Age pacifists quoting him on the topic of peace. Whatever the case may be, it's always a good idea to get a true sense of the man with some lovely books.  And you have many great choice to choose from. Here is just a partial list of some of the better St. Francis-related titles out there:

Saint Francis
Saint Francis of Assisi: A Life of Joy
Canticle of the Sun: Saint Francis of Assisi
Brother Juniper
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
The Good Man of Assisi
Francis: The Poor Man of Assisi

But I want to especially highlight my personal favorite book on the man, called Clare and Francis.  I don't think I can sing the praises of illustrator Bimba Landmann enough.  I first discovered her with the excellent book: A Boy Named Giotto, and have since placed all her titles on my wish list. She is such a unique artist  for children: color, beauty, and a hint of eerie grace all her pictures.  I am so glad she didn't let her teacher act as a killjoy for her:  I decided to become an illustrator when I was a child. 

"I think I was about ten years old, or maybe less. I went on a school visit to a museum where there were a lot of ancient illuminated books, all hand painted by Reinassance monks. When I saw those blues... the golds...the paper... I was lightening struck, gripped by this emotion. I immediately rushed to my teacher and told her: "I know what I will do when I grow up!" But she laughed and answered, "that sort of work does'nt exist any more". I didn't believe her at all, and I went on filling my exercise book with words, drawings, colours and images from my inner world. "

If you are just going to have one book about St. Francis on your shelves, make it this one... a sample of the inside:

"Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society."  

- St. Francis of Assisi

More Catholic Stories

My original listmania list "Beautiful Stories for the Catholic Child: Only the Best" was limited to only 40 books.  Since then, I've compiled a couple dozen other titles for parents seeking to find picture books that support the faith.

Beautiful Stories for the Catholic Child: Only the Best 2.

Fairy Tales and Reality

Oh so very much to say... So many good books to discuss... Such a busy month though. I am turning this post over to G.K. Chesterton with a section from Tremendous Trifles, (Free on Kindle!) courtesy of Project Guttenburg.  It's a superb read... The tale he references at the end is free to read online and is sometimes called The Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear:

THE RED ANGEL

I find that there really are human beings who think fairy tales bad for children. I do not speak of the man in the green tie, for him I can never count truly human. But a lady has written me an earnest letter saying that fairy tales ought not to be taught to children even if they are true. She says that it is cruel to tell children fairy tales, because it frightens them. You might just as well say that it is cruel to give girls sentimental novels because it makes them cry. All this kind of talk is based on that complete forgetting of what a child is like which has been the firm foundation of so many educational schemes. If you keep bogies and goblins away from children they would make them up for themselves. One small child in the dark can invent more hells than Swedenborg. One small child can imagine monsters too big and black to get into any picture, and give them names too unearthly and cacophonous to have occurred in the cries of any lunatic. The child, to begin with, commonly likes horrors, and he continues to indulge in them even when he does not like them. There is just as much difficulty in saying exactly where pure pain begins in his case, as there is in ours when we walk of our own free will into the torture-chamber of a great tragedy. The fear does not come from fairy tales; the fear comes from the universe of the soul.

.....
The timidity of the child or the savage is entirely reasonable; they are alarmed at this world, because this world is a very alarming place. They dislike being alone because it is verily and indeed an awful idea to be alone. Barbarians fear the unknown for the same reason that Agnostics worship it—because it is a fact. Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear. When I was a child I have stared at the darkness until the whole black bulk of it turned into one negro giant taller than heaven. If there was one star in the sky it only made him a Cyclops. But fairy tales restored my mental health, for next day I read an authentic account of how a negro giant with one eye, of quite equal dimensions, had been baffled by a little boy like myself (of similar inexperience and even lower social status) by means of a sword, some bad riddles, and a brave heart. Sometimes the sea at night seemed as dreadful as any dragon. But then I was acquainted with many youngest sons and little sailors to whom a dragon or two was as simple as the sea.

Take the most horrible of Grimm's tales in incident and imagery, the excellent tale of the "Boy who Could not Shudder," and you will see what I mean. There are some living shocks in that tale. I remember specially a man's legs which fell down the chimney by themselves and walked about the room, until they were rejoined by the severed head and body which fell down the chimney after them. That is very good. But the point of the story and the point of the reader's feelings is not that these things are frightening, but the far more striking fact that the hero was not frightened at them. The most fearful of all these fearful wonders was his own absence of fear. He slapped the bogies on the back and asked the devils to drink wine with him; many a time in my youth, when stifled with some modern morbidity, I have prayed for a double portion of his spirit. If you have not read the end of his story, go and read it; it is the wisest thing in the world. The hero was at last taught to shudder by taking a wife, who threw a pail of cold water over him. In that one sentence there is more of the real meaning of marriage than in all the books about sex that cover Europe and America.

“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that 

dragons can be beaten.”

                                                                                                             -Chesterton

St. Patrick's Day, Irish Saints in General, and How to Be a Savvy Library Patron

A potpourri post that omits some of the best books based in Ireland only because there are many and I'm saving them for another upcoming theme:

Next week is the feast of St. Patrick. If you live in a particularly big city or a particularly literate area or a particularly homeschooler-thick area, it's probably too late for you to reserve your St. Patrick books at the library because bibliozealots like me snatched them up at least a week or two ago already. See you really have to be forward-thinking with seasonal literature. Some people walk into a library on December 23rd expecting to pick up some lovely Christmas stories for their kids to enjoy Christmas Day... ha! It ain't gonna happen my friend! Reserve your Christmas books a month out, then when they notify you that your holds are ready to pick up, you wait until the last possible day to pick them up. Usually you have a week's grace period to pick up your holds. So that puts you out three weeks to the holiday. Your library should let you borrow books for three weeks. But if you want them longer, try to renew your books a week after you get them or so. Some will already have reservations on them from other users, others will be available for renewals. You make the most of it.

This is the way to get seasonal or holiday books. I try not to hoard every single book on St. Patrick or Christmas or Thanksgiving or whatever... that's just gluttonous, but I do try and make sure we have a super great title or two that we can count on to be perfect holiday reading.

Furthermore, I am more and more interested in purchasing seasonal or liturgical books than the average run-of-the-mill book only because it's nice to rotate things in and out of your book basket as the rhythms of the year come and go. So I'll even borrow some Christmas books from the library in October or November for preview's sake... to see if it's something I want to purchase. Right now, I'm getting itchy to purchase some lovely Easter-themed books for the children on Easter morning and the time is already over-ripe to make those plans!

But I digress.

St. Patrick's Day. And a wee bit of Ireland in general just to get in the sprit of things shall we?

My favorites:

St. Patrick's Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting. Very sweet story with excellent Jan Brett illustrations about a young boy who is too big for his britches.

Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland by the incomparable Tomie dePaola. Everyone should have the basic story of Patrick in mind on this holiday that quickly gets overtaken with beer and leprechauns... this is a good a story as any! Also, I haven't personally read these, but here are some other books on the saint himself that look like they might be real gems too: Patrick, Saint of Ireland, and The Story of Saint Patrick and The Life of St. Patrick: Enlightener of the Irish.
St. Patrick's Day by Gail Gibbons. Gibbons does a great job at producing basic, light non-fiction children's books on a ton of topics. This book is a good overview of the holiday and current customs. My only beef with it is that it says the shamrock is a "symbol of St. Patrick"... well, uh, actually it's not. He made this symbol famous for representing the Holy Trinity... but I try not to be too pedantic with kid's books. Key word "try."
Mary McLean and the St. Patrick's Day Parade by Steven Kroll. Wishes really can come true for this little girl!

Saint Patrick and the Peddler by Margaret Hodges is out of print but your library may have it. This is a fantastic story that tells like a verbal story... try to read it with an accent! It may be scary for young readers as the ghost of St. Patrick is shown... the story actually has nothing to do with his feast day but all things Ireland relate to him somehow it seems!

***[Side Note]***

I was typing a title into Amazon to find the link and I stumbled on this book which looks like it could be a real winner... at least the cover art is appealing to me. So don't take my word for it, since I've not reviewed it myself yet, but I was surprised to find a book on St. Patrick that I'd never heard of that looked really promising! (boo, my library system doesn't have it in their system.)

St. Patrick and the Three Brave Mice by Joyce Stengel...

***[/Side Note]***

The Blackbird's Nest: Saint Kevin of Ireland by Jenny Schroedel. This is a good time of year to go through other Irish saints too... and this particular story is particularly Lenten so I consider it a must-read!

Ciaran: the Tale of a Saint of Ireland by Gary Schmidt. St. Ciaran was one of Ireland's first saints... he was encouraged by St. Patrick. This is a lovely, gentle book with excellent illustrations and evocative prose: "But still Ciaran's eyes looked to the east, and his heart longed for the name of God..."
Saint Brigid: Abbess of Kildaire by Jane Meyer. Geared toward slightly older children, this story of St. Brigid has stunning illuminations that make the whole thing come alive from the Emerald Isle... (see also Brigid's Cloak)

Acrosss a Dark and Wild Sea by Don Brown. This is an excellent story about the Irish monk St. Columba...
Brendan and the Voyage Before Columbus by Michael McGrew. Get your history straight on the "discovery" of the New World and add some faith in there too!