Bernadette McCarver Snyder

I want to have something positive to say after reading this book ... I want to go away from this book with a positive thought ... so -- It's now off my bookshelf and that's 1 book down!

Generally speaking, as a whole, I did not like the book ... There were aspects of it I did like, but as a whole I did not like this book.

I'm not 100% convinced that the author is Catholic. I think she wrote the book because her publisher asked her to write a "Fun Facts book about the saints". If she is Catholic, I don't think she's a well-educated Catholic. Numerous times she tells the kids -- the main audience of the book -- that if they've sinned all they have to do is say a little prayer to God, asking for forgiveness and all is forgiven. Well, first of all, this book is written to kids, for kids, that can READ! I would say 3rd grade at the earliest is the target audience, which means they have probably received First Penance and First Communion, which means that a Catholic kid should be encouraged to go to Confession for his sins, not just saying a prayer to God and all is forgiven. I didn't like that. I wasn't sure all the people listed were actually Catholic saints (and you could try to argue that this book wasn't written just for Catholics but the author does make mention of popes and "the early Catholic Church").

(And as an aside, it is said that Saint Jude is a brother of St. James the Less, and the author of the epistle bearing his name in the New Testament ... yet this book gives that honor to St. James the Less.)

Other things I didn't like, which could be seen as "minor" things ... The author stresses certain words by putting them in CAPITAL LETTERS. I suppose this would be fine if it was rare or actually had a purpose but instead it came across as, "This IS interesting because THE words ARE in capital letters!" I also didn't like the "Do you wish YOU could be a missionary? Maybe you can THINK about that today!" or whatever after every saint. The title is "115 Saintly Fun Facts," not "115 Days with the Saints". The information on one saint was not long enough to warrant 1 day with a saint. You could easily read 3 or 4 or 5 in a sitting, so having suggestions made for each day was pointless and annoying -- especially the one where the author suggests the reader gets his grandmother to bake cookies that he would then sell door to door to make money to donate to the poor!

What DID I like about the book? Good question : )
I liked reading about the saints and learning about some I didn't know about ... I wish the author had actually stated what century or year all the saints came out of (she mentions it for some); that's interesting information to me, especially when you consider how long some of them lived.

I would NOT recommend you give this book to a kid to just take and read. I think it would be better for a parent to read with the child and clarify any errors (like is the thief that died with Jesus really a saint?) and to better direct the suggestions at the end of each saint -- or skip entirely.

Adrianne… (més)