The Lives of Saints for Children...

While we were at Saint Tikhon's, we had a wonderful time browsing in the bookstore. I was able to buy three books that I have wanted to get for the children for awhile. These books, Christina's Favorite Saints, A Child's Paradise of Saints, and Christina's True Heroes are ones that you and your children will treasure. Each book has a page or two (and an Icon!) for some of the more popular saints in the Orthodox Church. Here are the lives of the saints covered in the books:

Christina's Favorite Saints

Saint Anthony the Great
Saint Symeon
St Gerasimos of Jordan
Saint George the Great Martyr
Saints Constantine and Helen
Saints Peter and Paul
The Prophet Elijah
The Dormition of the Mother of God
Saint Sophia and Her Daughters, Faith, Hope, and Charity
Saint Kosmas the Melodos
Saint Katharine
Saint Herman

A Child's Paradise of Saints
Saints Constantine and Helen
Saints Cyprian and Justina
Saint Demetrius of Thessalonica
The Guardian Angel
Saint Herman of Alaska
Saint John the Russian
Saint Mary Magdalene
Saint Mary of Egypt
Saint Moses the Black
Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker
Saint Nina of Georgia
The Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon
Saint Philothei of Athens
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
Saint Xenia of Petersburg

Christina's True Heroes
Saint Anna, The Mother of The Mother of God
Saint Mary Magdalene, Equal-to-the-Apsotles
Saint Photini, The Samaritan Woman
Saint Brigid, Abbess of Kildare
Saint Mary of Egypt
Saint Theodora
Saint Elizabeth the New Martyr

Pictures of God...

I saw this book in the latest Conciliar Press catalog and ordered it right away. We ended up giving it to Sugar Plum on the Anniversary of her Baptism and it has been a favorite in our house ever since.


One of the things that I like the most about this book is that it can be read and understood at a variety of different ages. There is a brief "Notice This" section that is perfect for younger children and a longer section to the left with more detail on each of the icons presented. The icons that the author chose for this books are beautiful and very common to the churches in America (in my experience). I think that children who read this book with their parents will be able to pick out the icons that they learn about in Pictures of God in their own parishes.


The only thing that I found disappointing was the icon of the Saints of North America. They are missing Saint Raphael of Brooklyn! This book was published after his canonization and I wish that an icon including him was chosen.

I am very happy that we added this book on icons to our collection and think that it will help our children to understand icons and notice details in icons much more than they would have without reading this book. If you are looking for a book to add to your children's library, I don't think that you will be disappointed with this one!

Orthodox Bible Reader...

We were introduced to this children's Bible several years ago after reading about it on Katherine's blog, Evlogia. My parents were looking for a namesday gift to give our eldest child, and after finding it for sale, bought it. It has truly become the only Bible we read to our children. They love the icons that illustrate every story and we love that the readings are serious, but written in clear and simple language. The Orthodox Bible Reader is an essential addition to your child's library.

The Life of Saint Brigid: Abbess of Kildare...

A few days ago, I received a copy of The Life of Saint Brigid: Abbess of Kildare by Jane G. Meyer to review. I am embarrassed to admit I knew nothing of Saint Brigid's life until I read the book. When the package arrived, I ripped it open and devoured the book right then and there (the children were napping or else I would have read it to them, too!). I loved reading about this saint and am so glad to know more about her!

One of the best things about this book is the content. Though the book is written in easy to understand prose, it is chock full of wonderful information about the saint. The book is clearly meant for children, but I believe that this is a book that every adult should own as well.

The illustrations for The Life of Saint Brigid are beautiful Celtic style paintings. I thought that it added so much to have the traditional style of artwork used to depict scenes from Saint Brigid's life. I really liked the icons that the illustrator, Zachary Lynch, painted alongside the Celtic knot work designs and illustrations of the saint's life throughout the book.

This children's book was written for little ones aged four and up. Our eldest child is three and while this book went a bit over her head, she did get something from it. She loved the part of the book that discussed Saint Brigid's pantry being blessed by God so that she could give food away to the poor. In addition, she was quite interested in the concept of becoming a nun - something I genuinely thought was beyond her comprehension. She was very drawn to one of the illustrations of Saint Brigid after she had become a nun and was dressed in white (I think because it reminded her of an icon we have of Saint Elisabeth the New Martyr).

A hard concept for Sugar Plum to understand was the fact that many of the illustrations showed the people and animals with expressions that she described as "sad" or "angry." The style of Celtic art is to use teardrop shaped eyes which often create that sad or angry look in the pictures. I believe that this was tricky for our daughter to understand because she often uses the pictures to help her understand what is going on in the story and the way things looked didn't mesh with the words that I was reading to her. I truly feel that we had difficulty with this because Sugar Plum is only three and the book is meant for slightly older children who would be better able to understand the differences in artistic style.

I really loved this book and am so happy that we have a copy for our collection of Orthodox children's books! I am very thankful that I now know about this wonderful saint and plan on finding an icon of her to hang in our kitchen next to one of Saint Euphrosynos the Cook. The life of Saint Brigid offers so much encouragement to us all! I hope that you will read and enjoy this book as much as we did!