[This post is part of a series, reviewing and recommending books every Catholic family should have in their home. We welcome our parish children's literary expert, Kathy Swegart, to the blog!]
Maine is home for many famous children’s book authors. E.B White, author of Charlotte’s Web, spent childhood summers on Great Pond in Rome and later settled in Blue Hill. Barbara Cooney, winner of the prestigious Caldecott Award, resided in Damariscotta. Add Ethel Pochocki to your list of Maine authors worthy of your attention.
I will tell you a secret about Ethel -she loved to write about saints and could not stop. To her, it was like eating popcorn or peanuts. Picture her table strewn with books and papers as she researches a saint.
As I work away, I have gotten hooked on a saint who is so funny, brave, outrageous, or noble that I must include him or her in the book.
How blessed we are that she turned her talent to writing about saints. In Saints and Heroes for Kids she writes about dozens of saints that span the centuries, some canonized, others quietly residing in heaven-or so we could wager an educated guess.
Ethel has a keen eye for captivating details, often writing about saints as they gave selflessly to the poor. Included is the famous story of St. Martin of Tours who came upon a ragged man shivering in the cold. St. Martin cut his cloak in half and shared with the beggar. In a vivid dream he sees Christ wearing the torn cloak. We read of St. Brigid of Ireland who gave her father's jeweled sword to a leper. St. Margaret of Scotland built schools, started hospitals, and established homes for the elderly and disabled. We read stories of courageous saints like St. Thomas Becket and St. Thomas More who gave their lives in loyalty to Jesus and His Church.
In this treasury, Ethel writes about more than thirty saints, including Mother Teresa, Saint Kateri Tekawitha and Saint Junipero Serra. She also includes two apparitions -Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of Knock. Saints and Heroes for Kids is illustrated by Mary Beth Owens, another celebrated Maine artist. The stories are short and would be an excellent choice as a read aloud for the family. Pochocki has also written a four-book collection entitled Once Upon a Time Saints.
Ethel was the mother of eight who rose early in the morning to write on a manual typewriter. Written with a mother's heart, her books shine through with a love of the saints, all crafted with a friendly style that feels like you are sitting at her cluttered kitchen table, reminding us that saints were human too. Ethel's saints are not marble statues perched on pedestals. Saints get hungry, angry, irritable, and make mistakes.
Ethel concludes, May the saints and heroes in this book help us all keep blundering toward heaven!
Kathy Swegart is a best-selling author of award-winning children's books with a Masters in Education from Boston College. She is the mother of three and the grandmother of many book-loving children. You can catch up with her on her website: http://kathrynswegart.com/
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