Read ON!

May/June 2009 Issue | Posted by Melissa Hartog in Features

By Kerry Crawford and Patricia A. Crawford

Reading matters. Research shows that reading just 20 minutes a day to babies and toddlers gives children a life-long advantage. It lays the foundation for their becoming successful readers in their own right as they mature.

Entering school with better literacy skills enables children to navigate school with greater ease, complete higher levels of education, attain better jobs, and earn more money.

In short, reading happily yields a positive return on parental investment. What these studies do not show, however, are the many spiritual dividends of placing Catholic books in the hands of the younger readers in your family.

In raising up a reader of Catholic books, parents help to shape a Catholic perspective, foster values and virtues, and shorten the distance between their children and God. 

Age-appropriate Catholic books simplify what is complex. They provide common ground for conversations between a child and parent. Books from Catholic publishers enliven and engage young readers in ways that textbooks often fail to do.

When carefully selected, Catholic books can be mirrors that reflect a child’s own experiences of Church or windows through which he or she sees the world through the eyes of the Church.

According to Sister Christina Wegendt, a Daugh­ ter of St. Paul and children’s editor of Pauline Books & Media, books fuel the imaginations of children and influence how they look at life.

“Reading board books and picture books to your children from a young age can shape their worldviews and values right from the start,” she says.

Sister Christina points to Pauline’s recently released picture book, Beginnings by Lori Ann Watson, as an example of a book that does just that.

“Beginnings gently teaches that life is precious to God from the moment of conception,” Sister Chris­ tina says. (Note: Beginnings will be available in May 2009.)

Sandy Ramlet of Littleton, Colo., wants her daughter Molly and son Corey — ages 6 and 10 — to encounter that view of faith in a secular humanistic world.

“I direct them to Catholic books to give them the unique perspective that might not otherwise fall into their hands,” she says. Books by Catholic publishers, Sandy further explains, make up “part of the spiritual nutrition I offer the children for their souls.”

With these spiritual supplements, Sandy hopes to influence how her children interpret the world around them and the choices they make as they grow older. 

“These books bring their faith alive and give the children a context for living out their faith in a world that needs Jesus,” she says.

More than once, Sandy has overheard her children, both avid readers, talking with their close non-Catholic friends about the books they’ve read. Molly and Corey do not hesitate to explain why the Mass and saints are important to them.

Sandy credits in part the reading they do as helping her young apologists-in-the-making. Books, she says, give that objective voice beyond what a parent tells a child.

Sandy and her husband read to and with their children. They encourage Molly and Corey to read to them. The biography, Saint Paul: The Thirteenth Apostle and a combined comic and coloring book, Saint Paul, (both from Pauline Books & Media) have recently taken center stage in the Ramlet household in honor of the Year of St. Paul.

“What could be more important,” Sandy says, “than helping children develop a strong relationship with the Lord and his saints? Books do this for my children in a beautiful way.” 

Peter Landau is a sixth grader from Pittsburgh, Pa. Like many 12-year-old boys, he enjoys playing basketball and soccer. While Peter likes to read, he is selective about the books he chooses.

“If it’s not great on the first page, I set it down,” he explains.

Historical fiction and, in particular, adventure books rank high on his list of “must-reads.” He finds that same spirit of adventure — but, true adventure — in many books about the saints served up by Catholic publishers. 

Peter gives high marks to two series from Catholic publishers. Vision Series for Youth (reissued by Ignatius Press) and Encounter the Saints (Pauline Books & Media) appeal to him. Not only do these series present the heroic lives of the saints, Peter says, they offer glimpses of events explainable only by divine intervention.

Memories of a chalice of poisoned wine shattering when blessed by St. Benedict (St. Benedict: Hero of the Hills) and the stigmata received by St. Francis (Saint Francis of Assisi: Gentle Revolutionary) have remained long after Peter finished reading the books.

However, the benefit of solid Catholic books reaches beyond just offering a miraculous story to this soon-to-be teenager. It’s sometimes hard to understand what it means to live a virtuous life.

“You can hear about virtues,” he says, “but I wonder how can I do that?” The stories of the saints provide a road map. “They are not just words on a page but people’s lives,” which, Peter says, he wants to imitate.

According to Peter’s mom, Karen Landau, Catholic books for children should be used for that very purpose. For that reason, she and other parents encouraged their parish library to purchase and make available a wide range of Catholic books for children.

The measure of a good Catholic book for kids, she says, is its witness to Christ and ability to draw young readers like Peter closer to him. 

Sister Christina agrees.

“Providing children with appealing, engaging books about their Catholic faith, or stories that are steeped in the values of our faith, is a great way to help children make these values their own,” she says. “As children grow older, reading stories about people who have lived their faith with courage, like the saints, helps make friendship with Jesus seem more real and possible for each one of us.”

Some children are doubly blessed. Their parents encourage reading Catholic books in the home and their parochial school teachers affirm its importance. These teachers read Catholic books to their students and stock their classroom or school libraries with books that engage, instruct, and inspire their students.

Kristina Pinto teaches fourth grade at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Warner Robins, Ga., in the Diocese of Savannah. She routinely includes faith-based picture books and chapter books in her lesson plans. Kristina looks for opportunities for books with high kid-appeal to do double duty. Instead of limiting them only to religion class, she often finds ways to inject Catholic content across the curriculum.

An intriguing alphabet book about Jesus, for example, provided the model for her students to write and publish their own alphabet poems for a language arts assignment. While her students sharpened their writing skills, Kristina says, “We got to know Jesus a little more from A to Z!”

Just as books about the saints are popular in the home, they are perennial favorites among the fourth graders at Sacred Heart Catholic School.

“When we use books about the saints, their stories come alive. It’s incredible,” the teacher says.

The students also frequently borrow the illustrated biographies of the only two popes they have known — John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Beyond stories of the heroes of our faith, Kristina keeps age-appropriate books on the Rosary, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and the Creed in her classroom library. Storybooks about Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter make the liturgical year more tangible to young Catholics in the classroom, as well as at home.

“These books help my students to better understand their faith and to see that it is a real treasure,” Kristina explains.

In addition to books from Catholic publishers, many general publishing companies offer excellent books with Christian content. Parents and teachers should, however, preview them to make sure the content aligns with Catholic teaching.

Jesus told stories and used parables in reaching out to the people of his day. Our Lord’s purpose was not to minimize but to manifest the Kingdom of God. A good Catholic book should do the same for young readers.E

Kerry Crawford is the author of 

Lourdes Today: A Pilgrimage to Mary’s Grotto (Servant Books). Patricia A. Crawford is an educator specializing in literature for young children. Together, they write the “Children’s Book Picks” column for the National Catholic Register. 

Books give that objective voice beyond what a parent tells a child.

New! Catholic Option for School Book Fairs

I stood there eyeing the hand-scrawled “wish list” my child had just brought home from school: an unremarkable series book, a craft kit, and a book based on a popular movie.

It was the time of year for our Catholic school’s book fair, and I was faced with our annual dilemma: how to support the school and a family zeal for reading, while avoiding filling our shelves with the latest round of “harmless choices”?

Every year the kids and I enter into negotiations, and every year I am left wanting more from the exercise. Ours is a solid Catholic school — so where were the solid Catholic books? Books that build character and strong faith; books with “staying power” that could live long and prosper in our home, well after the first reading?

Enter the Daughters of St. Paul — well-known for their wonderful selection of Catholic resources through their publishing house, Pau­ line Books & Media. Expanding on their mission to evangelize through modern communications and the mass media, they are launching the JClub Catholic Book Fair — a much-needed program for Catholic schools that incorporates book fairs, a children’s magazine, website resources, fundraising, and media workshops.

According to Sister Margaret Kerry, who heads the Lay Association of Pauline Cooperators and helped coordinate the design of the JClub Book Fairs, the group is working to “respond to the needs of families” by helping parents and teachers lead children “to appreciate reading and loving Catholic books.”

Through the program, schools may conduct an “At-Your-Service” book fair, in which Pauline Books & Media representatives are on-site to run the fair and answer questions for students and faculty who come to view the materials before ordering.

There is also the option of a “Do-It-Yourself” fair, in which students simply bring home lists of available materials to review with their parents and place orders.

Either way, schools are supplied with promotional materials, project timelines, and everything needed to carry out a successful fair. A percentage of the profits of all JClub Book Fairs are given back to the school.

A Catholic school teacher for 15 years, Sister Mary Margaret of St. Matthew School in Champaign, Ill., had noted the enthusiasm of the children for book fairs, but was looking for something that also reflected the Catholic faith. She contacted the Daughters of St. Paul, who came to her school and parish during Catholic Schools Week. The program earned rave reviews from students, teachers, parents, and parishioners.

“It’s a great way to expose young people to good Catholic, Christian literature and media,” says Sister Mary Margaret. “The children especially enjoyed the prayer books and books about saints.”

For more information on how to bring a JClub Book Fair to your school or parish, visit JClubCatholic.org.

— Lynn Wehner

We are proud to

annnounce that the

Daughters of St. Paul

are launching the JClub Catholic Book Fair —

a program for Catholic schools.