Stories for Children

Our family is crazy about picture books, saints books *and* alphabet books: this fantastic new publication fits all of the above. In fact, it was some time after my order arrived before I could get my hands on it: a Catholic homeschool mother who was over visiting opened the package and enjoyed reading it with a large sample size of our children before I could even see it!

Each page has a whole-page illustration of the saint and the letter of the alphabet where it belongs: St. Martin de Porres uses the legs of the capital M to hang his laundry and St. Zita uses the bottom leg of the Z to store her jars of food. The illustrations are at the same childish and realistic with enough details to entertain the adult reader. The four-line verses are delightful and contain an important aspect of the saints’ life. Blessed Kateri’s reads:

As the Lily of the Mohawk,

Kateri was sweet and pure.

She kept her faith with patience,

all the way to heaven’s door.

Below the verses the authors added a few lines about the life of each saint, and I think this was a very clever idea. For one thing it allowed them to be able to focus at times on very minor aspects of their lives in their verses without leaving aside what was essential about each of them.

This is an illustrated, children's adaptation of "The Nun's Priest's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It's a simple moral tale, reminiscent of Aesop's Fables, with a lesson about the dangers of flattery and pride. A prideful rooster faces danger as he is flattered by a cunning fox. Truly a classic.

Daddy's Lullaby by Tony Bradman, beautifully illustrated by Jason Cockcroft, is a children's storybook about a young dad who comes home late at night to find the baby wide awake in his crib. In his efforts to soothe the baby back to sleep, dad cuddles him in his arms and tours the house with the baby to see all the other sleeping members of the family. When that doesn't work, dad takes the baby downstairs and sings him a soft lullaby about "Daddy will hold you safe from all harm" and "Love you forever--A promise he'll keep." Exhausted from his long week at work, dad falls asleep with the baby nestled in his arms. In the morning, mom and big brother find them still sleeping peacefully. The strength and power of this dad is displayed in his commitment to his family, "let me chase that bad old dream away" and the warmth and the love he has for them with words like "And here's the best mother a baby could have. You're a lucky baby and I'm a lucky dad!" In this day and age of broken homes, this story is a refreshing encouragement to dads about the real meaning of family life. The captivating pictures poignantly illustrate the tenderness and love of this dad for his family.

Listening to good quality and content audio recording has been a mainstay for our family: they complement reading alone and reading aloud quite well. We have crossed the country listening to great renditions of Fr. Brown, Jeeves and Wooster, and Huckleberry Finn among many others. My husband commutes at least four times a week to the University 55 minutes away and has been become quite a critic of audio productions. As a matter of fact, we all have become quite sensitive in this matter: it has happened more than once that we have ejected a tape or CD never to play it again.

Although we all agree on Joe Hayes of New Mexico as the all time favorite, we have found that the style of Jim Weiss comes in a close second. In 1989 Jim and Randy Weiss started their company of audio products for children when they found a void in the market for this sort of product: Greathall Productions. Jim is a talented and captivating storyteller, and our family has enjoyed his recordings of classic works for over a decade. From the humble beginning of a few recordings of well-known tales, the catalog now carries dozens of recordings, all of which have received national awards. It states:

We know only that the classics, from Aesop to Shakespeare, from Greek mythology to King Arthur through Dickens and Dumas, were often ignored or presented in a way that radically changed the original stories. We knew from experience, however, that a story well told would ignite a love of learning in a listener. Our goal then, as now, was to instill in children the lifelong love of great literature by telling the stories on a child's level without altering the authors' intent. (...) It turned out that there were millions of people hungry for what we did.

Our family, especially our boys, have listened to Jim Weiss' recordings for years and for the purpose of this review have selected some of their favorites: The Three Musketeers, Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, Heroes in Mythology, Celtic Treasures, Arabian Nights and King Arthur and His Knights. In their wish list we have circled The Queens' Pirate and Galileo and the Stargazers. New productions in this catalog are Thomas Jefferson's America and Romeo and Juliet. The catalog now also offers some book & audio combined sets, including Come on Seabiscuit and Rascal. It also has a section on Weiss's "thoughtfully abridged" recordings of G. A. Henty's works, a historical fiction writer whose reprints are very popular with homeschoolers. Keep in mind that the rule of thumb for Catholics regarding the Henty titles is to stay before the Protestant Reformation, chronologically speaking. Anything around and after the Reformation would not have a Catholic perspective, quite the contrary. (Dover had many titles by G. A. Henty in inexpensive paperback editions; PrestonSpeed Publications has a wider selection of titles, formats, and prices.). Greathall Productions' website has a plethora of information including booking, fundraising opportunities, pictures to print and color, and audio samples. Happy listening!