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Books for Kids

Celebrating St. Patrick Through Books {Lent Book Series}

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The Lent Book Series today features Katie Young, a homeschooling mom of seven, blogger and lover of all kinds of Catholic feasts.  Today she and her children share some book ideas for St. Patrick’s Day.

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Growing up, I thought St. Patrick’s Day was all about the wearing the color green or else you’d be getting pinched all day long. Youch!! So, if I bump into you today and you’re not wearing green, you better watch out.

As the years have gone by, thankfully, the Spirit plants a desire to learn and grow in faith more, and my celebration of St. Patrick’s Day has evolved.

Early on in our marriage, my husband and I started the tradition with our kids of learning about the lives of the saints and celebrating feast days. We do this by reading books and stories about their lives, eating fun/themed foods, singing songs, making crafts, and more.

We found St. Patrick to be one of those “easy” saints when jumping into this new learning experience together. There is so much information and ideas out there to really celebrate his feast in a meaningful way.

Our family has really enjoyed getting to know St. Patrick, while keeping some of our own silly Irish traditions. The following four books are ones that we always pull out and read this time of year. I not only shared a little bit about what *I* think about the books, but also asked each of my older children to read and offer some thoughts and a review as well (great homeschooling assignment, no??)…

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St Patrick’s Day by Gail Gibbons

“This book tells a little about the life of St. Patrick and also about the reasons for the decorations, symbols, and celebrations and how they came about. It’s a better book for younger kids because it is a more of an introduction, but I wanted a little more detail on his life.” ~Lillian, age 9

I agree with Lillian about this book being more appropriate for the younger crew – this book is probably best for ages 2-7. What a great description of his life, the symbols of St. Patrick’s Day and also some legends surrounding the saint. The pictures are bright and fun and the flow of the book definitely will keep little ones attentive. One legend was new to me – “It is said that the sun didn’t set when Saint Patrick died and that it shone in the sky for twelve days and nights.” Cool!!

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The Story of Saint Patrick’s Day by Patricia A. Pingry

“It tells you the story of St. Patrick and why you celebrate it. I liked it because it’s a good book and you celebrate that feast the day after my birthday.” ~Elizabeth, age 7

This adorable little board book is one that the littlest ones can grab and look through many times, without ripping it – yippee! I love how on each page, there is a word or two highlighted to point out the main idea of the page. Great for those first readers to notice and understand even more. The pictures are lovely and the words are very simple for little ones to understand and enjoy.

A little warning…. we do have some little leprechauns that come to our house and make a mess on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day, but they are also nice enough to leave some green goodies (Andes candies, tic tacs, Lucky Charms, a dollar bill, etc…). On one of the pages, it says, “Leprechauns are make-believe” – we had to kind of ad lib when we read this part. Our tradition is all in fun and the kids look forward to the visit of St. Patrick’s little friends each year.

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Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland by: Tomie dePaola

“Tomie dePaola’s St. Patrick book expresses a good example of St. Patrick’s life. DePaola is a good and devoted man. His books really express God and the lives of the saints.” ~Jonathan, age 12

We are big Tomie dePaola fans in our house! Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland is one of many saint books that he has blessed us with. He beautifully takes the life of a saint and creates a story for kids to sit down, read and enjoy, year after year.

The artwork is lovely as always too In his great story-telling format, he takes appropriate names for the land and culture to make the story come to life- for example, Dichu and Odran were some names in this book.

One neat part of Tomie dePaola’s saint books is that he usually includes a letter written to us at the end of the book to show how he was first introduced to the saint and how he has grown in knowledge of him or her. Reading this book is a great way to “meet” good ole St. Patrick!

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Patrick, Saint of Ireland by: Joyce Denham and Diana Mayo

“ I was surprised that a small book like this could hold so much information about St. Patrick. The illustrator was a good artist too!” ~Matthew, age 11

This book is woven together from both the writings of St. Patrick and the legends that are attributed to his name. Like Tomie dePaola, Denham & Mayo draw you in to the life of the saint through a story. The illustrations and text of this book are very well done and informative.

My favorite part is that it includes some of St. Patrick’s actual writings and prayers – what a meaningful element added to help understand who this saint was and how much He loved and trusted God!

In celebration of Saint Patrick’s feast day, we will most definitely be reading these four books together, as well as singing this song…

“The Trinity Song” is from the Dogma Dogs CD, and the kids learned the motions from this song from one of our very own Peoria-diocese seminarians – Matt Deptula, who helped lead a Trinity VBS at our church a couple summers ago).

How else will we celebrate? I’ll serve the traditional corned beef and cabbage for dinner that night, probably Trinity sandwiches at lunch time (triangular shaped sandwiches – super easy!), and we will maybe do a craft. You can bet there will have been a visit from St. Patrick’s leprechauns and we will all be wearing green. I hope you will be too!!

++Saint Patrick, pray for us to be blessed with the virtues of courage, fortitude and faith.++

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Katie Young is blessed to have 8 very special people in her life. She is married to her high school sweetheart, Neil , and they have seven beautiful children together.  They live in Coal Valley and are members of Sacred Heart Church in Moline.

Her favorite thing to do is spending time with her family – whether it is playing games, watching movies, going on walks, fishing at the lake, reading books, cooking, teaching at the Young Family Academy, and most especially learning about and celebrating the richness of the Catholic faith together. You can visit their family blog at: Raising Young Ones.

Making a Catholic Home {Lent Book Series}

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Today the Lent Book Series features Britta Kreps.

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When my husband and I first got married, I assumed that living the liturgical life of the Church would be easy. He was the Director of Worship for our Church and our conversations revolved around the liturgical year much of time.

Living the liturgy was just what we did.

I naturally assumed that this would carry over into our home and that talking about and teaching the faith to our children would be easy.

There’s nothing like a dose of reality to bring us to our knees. While our Catholic faith is very tangible and accessible, faith and understanding  in a family of little ones doesn’t come without effort. My husband’s employment with the Church does NOT equal an easy road to instant faith education and practice.

Mary Newland Reed’s book, We and Our Children: Making a Catholic Home is an excellent source for the language and how-tos of making the faith present in our families every day – all the time.

I’ve read the book once and this Lent I’m reading it again with a pencil and notebook in hand!

A wise priest once preached on the necessity of reading Scripture three times in order to gain the most from its richness. He said to read through the excerpt once, then read it again slowly and prayerfully, and then one more time highlighting or making note of things that stand out.

What great advice. I think this should apply to more than just reading Scripture. That’s why I’m tackling Reed’s book again.

Lent is a great time to find an area of our lives that needs some work or needs refining. This Lent I am going to focus on how our family lives the liturgical year in our home. We and our Children is a fantastic resource.

Reed puts into words so much of what has been tumbling around in my head for 10 years! Her gift to the reader is the tools (examples, language, etc) for making the faith come alive in our homes everyday.

Reed makes the stories of the Bible come to life in language suitable for any age. By sharing her experiences with her own children, Reed encourages parents. She gives them concrete examples and suggestions as to how to broach somewhat sensitive topics like purity and chastity, all while using the richness of our faith.

I’m sad I didn’t learn about this book sooner. I feel like I’ve got some making up to do, and I plan on trying my best to incorporate her ideas as they suit my family. I want my children to live our faith in such a way that “it’s just what they do” without thinking that while living out the ordinary they become closer to the extraordinary.

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Britta Kreps has been happily married to Christopher for 11 years.  She is the mother to seven children Grace 10 yrs, Gianna 8 yrs, Tobias 6 yrs, Joshua 5 yrs., Samuel 3 yrs., Christopher, Jr. (aka Nick) is 2 and Alexander is 6 months old.  They are members of St. Patrick in Raritan.

She loves anything Catholic, reading, sewing, knitting, walking, bicycling and spending time with good friends.  She likes wearing skirts of all kinds and matching them up with sneakers– all about comfort!

She’s a homeschooling, kitchen-loving, blogging, trying-to-make-it-to-Heaven kind of mom.

You can read more from Britta at her blog  By Prayer and Petition.

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The Big Purse Dump

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Second in my 7 posts in 7 days. 

I normally don’t do many link-ups, but this week I’m making an exception because I’m trying to do Jen Fulwiler’s 7 posts in 7 days, and I thought this would be a fun mix-up.  So plan on a lot of link-ups this week, but no guarantees about the future.

Kendra from Catholic All Year will be at the Behold Conference this weekend, and in her honor, I thought I would join in on her “Big Purse Dump.”

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So, I know Kendra specified “purse-droppers” weren’t supposed to clean out their purses, but one habit I learned from FlyLady, and one of the ones I’m actually pretty good at, is cleaning out my purse each Friday.  I don’t think that counts as cheating, since I haven’t cleaned out my purse since learning about  her link-up when reading about it at Bonnie’s blog early this morning, but maybe the powers that be can weigh in on that.

Two other ways I might that I “cheated,” but I don’t think so:

*I have not just a purse but a small tote bag I carry some days.

*I cleaned out used kleenexes before I snapped the photos.

Around Christmastime, I took my older teen to Macy’s to use up a cousin-gifted gift card.  I rarely go to Macy’s, and there were huge sales on purses, so I thought I would look at them. I found not one but two purses, and one was this Fossil  striped tote that I really love. We happened to run into a friend who does often shop at Macy’s, and she let me use her “frequent shopper” discount card or something like that, and so with the sale prices and that both purses together ended up being less than $30. I love a bargain!

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I’ve always been a “big purse” carrier, and stow tons of stuff in it—I always would joke with friends that I could go on the 1970s version of “The Price is Right” and Monty Hall would say, “I’ll give you $50 for every safety-pin you’ve got in there!” and I would make tons of money. Does anyone even know about The Price is Right any more? This was summer early morning watching when I was in grade school, along with Schoolhouse Rock, on actual TV, just in case you were wondering.

But I am glad that I got the smaller purse, because it allows me to have a basic bag, and also pare down things I carry every day.  I carry the tote only when I need to, like this morning when taking kids to the dentist and might have a few minutes to myself.

[Random aside: Notice the stack of Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction
books towards the back of the table when I snapped this photo. This book series (we have 1, 2 and 3 from the library right now) is a huge, huge hit at our house at the moment, and the cardboard box there contains the supplies to make penny bombs, mechanical pencil shooters and other boy-crafty items. Super fun.]

Now, here is what is in the purse.  I’m only putting up one photo, that contains only half the items.  The other photo looked a bit like it had too much info from the inside of my checkbook and wallets, and I’m just leaving that out:

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*black small bag with lipstick, aquafor, not one but three floss containers, nail clippers, etc.

*wallet not at all organized stuffed with receipts, cards, etc. Also, checkbook.

*deck of cards. I love playing cards, whether solitaire or a quick game of rummy while we are waiting somewhere. Call me crazy. I actually have a bit of a collection of playing cards, many from airlines back when airlines used to give you free playing cards if you asked. I have Northwest Airlines and Eastern Airlines, to show you how long ago it was. My current purse deck came from the Catholic school attended by some of our cousins.

*random receipts, gift card, rainbow loom thing made by somewhere along the way, hand sanitizer in a ziplock. That’s kind of an interesting story. Once a hand sanitizer opened in my purse and got all over the place. Since then I’ve kept in a ziplock, just so you know.

*seven writing implements. I love sharpies especially, and I think five of the seven are fine sharpies.

*two fresh kleenex packets.

*mini first-aid kit made by my 13-year-old for me.

*stevia packet, Kind bar, two packages of my favorite gum, Trident Vitality.

not shown: my iPhone, which carries so much of the weight of things (literally and figuratively).

I didn’t take a photo of the contents of the tote bag, since I don’t carry it every day. I did happen to take it with me today when I took kids to the dentist. I normally put my laptop, but additionally this morning it included:

*trader Joe’s chocolate
*random coupons
*another kleenex packet.
*several review books—I usually have two or three in there to skim or read during school pick-up or other random times.  Right now there are two in there: Embracing Edith Stein, I’m taking a lot of notes on that one; and Faces from Dante’s Inferno. I just need to begin that one, but I feel daunted.
*a clipboard with random things attached—to do lists, scheduling. Trying to be organized…
*in an inside pocket, two shells from our January florida trip.  A really happy memory on a cold day here.

My thoughts:

*It’s my favorite thing in here: not pictured, my iPhone. Just this morning, I was able to use it to make future dentist appointment, boy haircut appointment, consult my list at Lowe’s, Target and Sam’s Club, and make several phone calls & many texts, and skim the New York Times (none while driving, naturally).  In addition, the kids & I were able to do the readings from Mass (via Universalis) and do a little lectio divina on that, as well as finish listening to the audiobook of The Story of My Life by Helen Keller.

*Wow, I really have a lot of those: pens.  I can never find one when I need it, and yet there were seven.  Why?   This would also be in the category, I’ve been looking for those.

*Huh, that should be in there:   need to eat up the chocolate before Lent begins next Wednesday.

*finally: where are the holy cards and rosaries? I usually have a few here, but for some reason not at all, in either bag. I do have a rosary app, novena apps, etc., on my iPhone, but I’m usually not without analog items.

That was a lot of fun to do.   I might even try on Thursday to do a first-ever for me,  a phfr (pretty, happy, funny, real) from Like Mother, Like Daughter, in honor of Dierdre Folley being at Behold as well.  We shall see…

Thank you to Kendra, for hosting this, and I look forward to meeting you at Behold this weekend!

February: Pursue Happiness

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Tonight is the night I’m giving the talk to the First Saturday group at St. Philomena.  This was rescheduled from January because last month was cancelled due to snow.   We currently have snow coming down (and earlier today, a Winter Weather Advisory), but we are Midwesterners, not Atlantans (sorry, Georgians), and so the talk is going on as planned.

Last month, I posted the January book, quote and “concept” (Be Yourself) and you can read that here.  For the sake of continuity, I’m going to  post the February books, concept and quote here.  Then as a separate post (I’ll give out the link tonight) list the books for the rest of the year.  Each month, I’ll have a dedicated post on that theme.

I’d love your feedback here as well, especially those who told me they couldn’t attend.  Thanks to Marie and the rest of the First Saturday team for inviting me!

February: Pursue Happiness

Just a few of the happiness books I like:

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Here’s the five-year sentence-a-day journal.
Sonja Lyubomirsky’s The How of Happiness

Quirky side note about Lyubomirsky’s book: I own the hardback of this, and on the front is a cherry pie.  The paperback version appears to show a lemon meringue pie. Meaning? I know not what, but I find it interesting.

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside

Quote (from Rilla of Ingleside)

“Now we won’t be sober any more. We’ll look beyond the years—to the time when the war will be over and Jem and Jerry and I will come marching home and we’ll all be happy again.”

“We won’t be—happy—in the same way,” said Rilla.

“No, not in the same way. Nobody whom this war has touched will ever be happy again in quite the same way. But it will be a better happiness, I think, little sister—a happiness we’ve earned. We were very happy before the war, weren’t we? With a home like Ingleside, and a father and mother like ours we couldn’t help being happy. But that happiness was a gift from life and love; it wasn’t really ours—life could take it back at any time. It can never take away the happiness we win for ourselves in the way of duty.”

How do you intend to pursue happiness (and therefore holiness) this month? 

Scripture take-away:  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” –Matthew 5:3

Five Ideas for the Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

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What are you doing to mark today’s 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade?

Last year, I wrote about five ideas for the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  I’m updating that this year with some new ideas.

1.  Celebrate the first Rogation Day for Life

Yesterday I shared how Rogation Days are back in the diocese of Peoria, and how I hope to commemorate the first one, today.  Its theme is Life, naturally, and suggestions include attending a pro-life event, visiting an elderly neighbor or family member, and praying the rosary and other devotions.

I am so intrigued with the idea of Rogation Days and setting aside a day for prayer and penance at different points in the year.

2. Speak Life

I wrote last year during 40 Days for Life about how we are all loved and forgiven.  I also wrote about how I haven’t always spoken life when it was necessary.

So this year, I’m going again with promoting the idea that the theme song of the March for Life should be the song “Speak Life” by TobyMac.

How will you “speak life” today?

3. Be part of the March for Life.

This is one of the times I’m really grateful we still have a (locally provided) cable television.  Since EWTN is one of the stations, we can watch the March and tons of interviews live. Here’s a link to the pro-life programming on EWTN this week.    (Local side note: part of that programming includes a show to air Friday night at 9:30 CST called “Voices in the Desert,” about the Pope Paul VI Institute and its work.  One of the young doctors featured on the show is Dr. Jillian Stalling, an ob/gyn in the Peoria area.

Our older teenager is actually at the March for Life with a group from our diocese and local Catholic high school.  It’s terrific to have a member of our family on the ground so to speak, and also we hope to catch a glimpse of her and the group somewhere along the way.  This is a meme just for her:

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4. Be pro-life in your own way.

Encountering a group of fellow LIFE Runners who ran the Naples Half -Marathon last weekend was an unexpected blessing, and I’ll be writing more about that in the future.

I was in Naples last weekend for two reasons: visiting family, and running the half-marathon. It’s my third time doing this particular race (the second along with my much-faster niece) and I really enjoy it. This visit allows our family to visit brother and sister-in-law, both law professors, and their family, and get a little sun and warmth mid-winter.

As I’ve written about in the past, LIFE Runners combines for me two loves: long-distance running, and devotion to the pro-life cause. I wrote before about how I did the St. Louis Marathon with LIFE Runners (visit part 1 here and visit part 2 here ), and the great experience I had there.

In the meantime, here’s a very quick interview with three of the 12 LIFE Runners (all from Ave Maria University). I am proud of myself for posting this even though I am not the least bit thrilled with way I look or sound here, and I don’t have the time to edit the video properly.  I’m just so proud of these young women:

5. Read (or re-read) some great pro-life books.

I’ve shared many, many pro-life books over the years.  Let me just share one now, that you can read with your children:

This book–about an unborn child who sees an angel while “in the waters”–is universally appealing among all age groups.  It’s a classic that people will be giving their children and grandchildren for years to come.  I can never read it without tearing up, and I dare you to, too.

(linking up for the first time with Moxie Wife, because I realized this fits into Five Favorites).

What are you doing to remember Roe v. Wade this year? 

Twitterature (January 2014 Edition)

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Linking up with Anne at Modern Mrs. Darcy for this month’s Twitterature, and sharing short reviews of current reads.

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What am I reading these cold days? A quick snapshot.


Just Patty by Jean Webster.

After the girls in our family read (and adored) the new and so-much-fun Dear Mr. Knightley (read my review here),  I considered re-reading Webster’s most famous novel Daddy Long-Legs (Dear Mr. K is homage to that book), but I also knew I needed something totally fresh, and I’ve never read Just Patty though it’s been on my Kindle App for ages.  It is truly hilarious, as in I am laughing out loud at different antics.  It’s a little bit like a novel version of the movie The Trouble with Angels, but set in early 1900s.

Just Patty. Just funny. Such a good laugh this time of year. because #February is coming, people.

All the Money in the World by Laura Vanderkam.

This is a re-read for me; I first read it in summer 2012 and had great things to say about it then.  I pulled it out again as I’m listing along with many others for a talk I’m slated to give to a  women’s group next month.

As I’ve written before about All the Money in The World, Vanderkam writes about having a healthy relationship with money, and spending money in  way that best reflects one’s values.  She also makes the case for charity being good for the soul and the body, something many personal finance books downplay.   I’m a big fan of Vanderkam in general–I’ve read most of her books and mini-books (short e-books like What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend are a great quick read.  She’s sensible and conversational, and I always come away with lots of ideas for making life better for me and those around me.

This time what’s standing out for me is the “List of 100 Dreams,” and finding ways we can make a list like that in our family, and make some of those happen. This definitely makes the must-read “life skills” books for my teens.


 The Good Master by Kate Seredy.

Short review? I love that my kids are old enough now to “make” me read books that I’ve somehow missed over the years.   I’m glad they made me read this one.

Over time, I’ve picked up most of Kate Seredy’s books at library sales, since I’ve always heard they were something special.  All my kids have loved and read these books, but I never read them aloud or even read them for myself.  Finally, several weeks back, when I was getting over a stomach bug that had hit our house, one of my kids demanded that I read it.

This is a lovely book.  Seredy’s writing style is simple yet lyrical.  This book would be a great evening read-aloud for elementary school ages.  The chapters are longish, but almost all of them end with a Hungarian folk story told by one of the characters.  It’s not a thrilling, page-turning read, but you’ll be glad you read it.

What are you reading this month?