Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls

I have had these books for my children for the past year, and I love them so much I'm ordering them for a friend of mine's little girl for her birthday--out of curiosity I read the reviews posted on this site, and was surprised and a little irritated by the one negative review---I felt I should weigh in with my opinion for what it's worth. I found these stories to be appropriate for young children with interesting stories of children told from a Catholic perspective. Initially I was leary about these books, because so often Catholic literature written in this time period, tends to be so saccharine and hokey and not something that children today can relate to. This was NOT the case with these books. The stories are beautiful, sometimes so moving I was in tears while reading aloud. I'm extremely sensitive to violent themes, and nothing in this book bothered me at all, and I'm not at all sure where the reviewer came up with sorcery as a theme in this book, unless he/she is anti-catholic and of a persuasion that feels catholic values and practices are intrinsically evil....I have run into a few of those types of people. But I digress. For those of you looking for good literature to read aloud to your children that emphasizes Catholic values and the faith, while at the same time being entertaining and often inciting great conversations afterward, I can't recommend this book enough.

The stories in this book are great stories that interest and inspire the reader. Charming, sweet and yet all with good humour and without any irreverence, this book makes an excellent gift for birthdays, Christmas, or if you home educate like me, it's a great book to just have and read at story time in class. It's style is simple and yet entertaining, and the age guide for 9-12 years is good but it could be read aloud to children as young as 4, depending on their attention span. As an adult, I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned from it. Hope others enjoy it as much as my family has!

Everytime I read these stories I have to skip sentences that are not appropriate or are violent, such as "he liked to dwell on the arms and legs he had cut off wiht a rusty saber..." I guess if your children are watching public television, the content with be nothing new. If, however, you are trying to protect your younger children from concepts like violence and sorcery, move on....

We use this book as a bedtime read aloud. Each story takes about 10-15 min. to read aloud. My kids, ages 3-14, never tire of hearing the stories. They are well written, moving, enjoyable and character-building all at the same time. Each story has a beautiful message without being preachy. And the heroes and heroines are children. Highly recommended!