Book Reviews and More: Ordinary Saints Around the World - Meg Hunter-Kilmer and Lindsey Sanders

Monday 14 October 2024

Ordinary Saints Around the World - Meg Hunter-Kilmer and Lindsey Sanders

Ordinary Saints Around the World

Meg Hunter-Kilmer

Lindsey Sanders (illustrator)

Emmaus Road Publishing

ISBN 9781645853770

Ordinary Saints Around the World - Meg Hunter-Kilmer and Lindsey Sanders

I recently received the 6 volumes in this set to review. This is the second I read. The volumes are:

Adventurous

Ordinary

Royal and Warrior

Talented

Unshakable

Young Saints

These 6 volumes are geared for younger readers. And are a very high quality picture book. The six books are available individually or as a set. There is a volume that was released in 2021 by the same author and illustrator called Saints Around the World, that could be read to the same audience as this volume but it is much more in-depth and has significantly more information on each of the 100 saints covered in the volume. The description of this volume states:

““When they saw [their] boldness . . . and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they marveled and took note that these men had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13

These fifteen men and women prove that no life is too ordinary for extraordinary holiness.

This hardcover book includes sturdy laminate pages suitable for young hands. Ordinary Saints Around the World features the stories of:

Saint Agatha Kim A-gi

Saint André Bessette

Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin

Saint Faustina Kowalska

Saint Nina of Georgia

Blessed Stanley Rother

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz

Saint Alphonsa Muttathupadathu

Blessed Laurentia Herasymiv

Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla

Saint Martha Wang Luo Mande

Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi

Blessed Rani Maria Vattalil

Blessed John Sullivan

Peter Wu Guosheng

Recommended for ages 4-8.”

About the author we are informed:

“Meg Hunter-Kilmer is a speaker, a writer, and a missionary who has lived out of her car since 2012. Meg loves telling stories, learning about Saints, reading the Bible, and watching the Olympics. She is a proud godmother of ten and aunt of an ever-increasing crew of incredible nieces and nephews.”

About the illustrator we are informed:

“Lindsey Sanders is the creator of AlmondRod Toys, an online shop that sells Catholic toys designed by Lindsey herself. She has seven kids who she homeschools in Grand Rapids, Michigan.”

There is no table of contents nor even pages numbers which are the only draw backs I see to this book and the 6 in the series. If you wanted to find a specific saint you would need to flip through looking for them. That being said this is an excellent volume and series. We already plan to give a set of them to our Catholic School Library. The physical books are well made, and designed to last a long time and heavy use. Beautiful hardcovers with solid stitching. I bent the book flat to scan a couple sample pages and there is no indication I did so. I believe the artwork is either watercolours or water colour pencils. The artwork is stunning. I would love prints of a couple of the images to be able to hang in my den.

Each 2 page spread includes:

Name of the Saint or Blessed

Pronunciation Guide to the name

Brief introduction to them

A key point to learn from them

Then the country, dates and feast day.

A world map with a star marker for where they were from.

There is also available a Saints Around the World Map & Sticker Set that contains stickers for all the saints in the series. The inside cover of each volume shows where the saints for that volume come from. It would be an excellent supplement for home or classroom use.

There were a few of my favourite saints in this volume, and a number I had never encountered before. I look forward to tracking down more information about some of those new friends in heaven. Some of my favourites included were: Saint André Bessette, Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, Blessed Stanley Rother, and Blessed John Sullivan. And some of the new encounters were Saint Nina of Georgia, Blessed Laurentia Herasymiv, and Blessed Rani Maria Vattalil.

I have had the longer version of this book for a few years now, as well as Meg’s volume Pray for Us: 75 Saints Who Sinned, Suffered, and Struggled on Their Way to Holiness but after reading just one of these they have jumped way up in my ‘to be read’ pile. I look forward to reading the other 5 volumes in this set as well as Meg’s other works. I can easily recommend this book and series for home, school, and church library. They are excellent for introducing children and even us older folks to a wide range of friends in heaven. A great book and series sure to become a family favourite!