Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links--thanks for your support!
So I have kind of a thing about Catholic children’s books, in that I really think we need more good ones that weren’t written 50+ years ago. I have to tell you that I am totally loving the joint books between Ignatius Press & Magnificat. The most recent one that I received a copy of was Our Holy Father, the Pope: The Papacy from Saint Peter to the Present.
Written by Don R Caffery and illustrated by Emmanuel Beaudesson, Our Holy Father, the Pope is a beautiful gift quality book for Catholic children. This book is a larger book at just a bit under 12×9, so it needs to go on our “large book” shelf, but the contents are such that it’s totally worth it to have to find a way to store it. The first part of the book talks about the Pope and then goes into the many stories of Saint Peter from the Bible and how Jesus picked him and ends with his (upside down) crucifixion. The rest of book talks about 4 great saints including Pope Pius X & JP II, and about the Pope and his “job” in the Church in modern day, how a Pope is chosen. There is also a list of all the Pope’s from Saint Peter to Pope Francis and a listing of scripture related to the establishment of the Pope and the Papacy.
While Our Holy Father, the Pope is not one of those books my kids regularly bring to me for read aloud time, they do still sit and snuggle up in my lap when I decide to read it. My older children are 6 and 3 and this book has enough information that it would be suitable for older children, too. How we used it, was to read two or three sections (there are are 22 sections) each Sunday. We’ve started a custom of reading a book about some aspect of God and/or the Catholic Faith each Sunday.
If you are Catholic and haven’t been well catechized (and there are a LOT of us out there!), Our Holy Father, the Pope is a great book for teaching your children (I’d say up to 10 years old, maybe?) about the history and origins of the Pope & the Papacy. I will admit that I learned several things while reading it, including things about St. Leo The Great, Pope Pius X, and the Swiss Guard. It made ME want to learn more about them :). This would be a fantastic gift for first communion recipients, especially boys who might be showing an interest in religious things, being an altar boy, etc). Even if they aren’t, they might later!
Our Holy Father, the Pope is another great book from the folks at Magnificat and Ignatius Press. I highly recommend it!
[…] Holy Father, the Pope – You can read my review at my blog, Happy Little Homemaker. Beautiful and informative […]