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Posted by Lisa Hendey in Reviews on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 2:00 PM
Last week, I had the privilege of interviewing Catholic mom and author Nancy Carabio Belanger and learning more about her fabulous book, Olivia and the Little Way
Nancy, a mom of two sons, has written a book that may be aimed at school age readers, but will become a favorite of moms as well. In the story, Olivia, a ten-year-old girl, is having trouble fitting in with the kids at her new Catholic school in the fifth grade. Her grandmother introduces her to St. Therese of Lisieux and her Little Way of serving God. St. Therese ends up becoming Olivia’s best friend.
Nancy’s story is fun, easy to read, and filled with inspirational lessons about the life of one of my favorite saints. She shares the following:
I think what makes St. Therese so appealing to children is her belief in being childlike, her very littleness. And kids are so bombarded with messages from the secular world that are not healthy. That’s all the more reason why they should turn to the saints for help. St. Therese is such a good, moral example for children to follow. Therese taught us that God loves us all, even with our many imperfections, and that making little sacrifices is something anybody can do, young or old. A smile for someone you don’t’ want to smile at, a helping hand when you’re just not in the mood. These little sacrifices please God very much. Therese is so sweet, but she’s also powerful: she will listen to you and love you and take your concerns to God and send you a shower of roses.
If you have school aged readers in your home, you should definitely pick up a copy of Olivia and the Little Way
Click here to read my entire interview with Nancy Carabio Belanger.
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My 11yo dd and I just finished reading it! It really is great. Zelie wrote a great book report/review for it but I hesitate to post it because of the spoilers she included! She wants her friends to read it but doesn’t want to loan her copy because she wants to have it around and handy - it has great quotes of St. Therese throughout.
It would be great if you posted the review, especially at Amazon. Having reviews posted definitely helps the authors to promote and sell their books and will encourage others to write good books like this. Maybe you could post a “spoiler warning” with the review. I’d love to have her review for CatholicMom.com too if she’d be willing to share it.
Theresia, that would be wonderful - why don’t you email it to me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and I will post it. If you’d like to send a digital photo of Zelie to accompany it, that would be great too - we will just use her first name in the posting. Thanks so much to both of you for your willingness to share!
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