Book Reviews and More: Saints Around the World Early Reader Collection

Saints Around the World Early Reader Collection

Meg Hunter-Kilmer

Lindsey Sanders (illustrator)

Emmaus Road Publishing

ISBN 9781645854265

Saints Around the WorldEarly Reader Collection - Meg Hunter-Kilmer and Lindsey Sanders

I recently received the 6 volumes in this set to review. The volumes are:

Adventurous

Ordinary

Royal and Warrior

Talented

Unshakable

Young Saints

These 6 volumes are geared for younger readers. They 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:

“Saints Around the World Early Reader Collection includes all six books authored by Meg Hunter-Kilmer and Illustrated by Lindsey Sanders. Each book features the stories of fifteen saints—young, adventurous, ordinary, royal and warrior, talented, and unshakable—with 32-page full color illustrations.

Young Saints Around the World showcases young saints who accomplished much in their very short lives.

Adventurous Saints Around the World compiles the stories of adventurous saints and shows how serving God is the greatest thrill of all.

Ordinary Saints Around the World features short stories that show children that no life is too ordinary for extraordinary holiness.

Royal and Warrior Saints Around the World show how great heroes can also be holy

Talented Saints Around the World depict saints using their remarkable skills to spread God’s message in many times and places.

Unshakable Saints Around the World teaches children to never let go of God’s hand—despite danger, doubts, and other challenges.

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 have given a set of them to our Catholic School Library. The physical books are well made, and designed to last a long time and for heavy use. They are beautiful hardcovers with solid stitching. I bent the books 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. The artist sells blocks with images from the books, for teaching children, and other resources to support learning about saints. I wish she sold a set of them as prayer cards, I would buy a set for myself and 2 of my teen children who love collecting prayer cards. I would also 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. The saints by volume are:

Adventurous

Blessed Peter Kasui Kibe

Saint Dulce Pontes

Blessed Emilian Kovch

Saint Damien of Molokai

Saint María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa

Saint Laura Montoya

Saint Joseph Vaz

Blessed Ladislaus Bukowinski

Blessed Sara Salkaházi

Blessed Victoire Rasoamanarivo

Barnabas

Blessed Maria Therese von Wüllenweber

Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky

Blessed Peter To Rot

Saint Rafael Guízar y Valencia

Ordinary

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

Royal and Warrior

Saint Adelaide of Burgundy

Blessed Takayama Ukon

Saint Casilda of Toledo

Saint Raphael Kalinowski

Saint Augustine Phan Viết Huy

Saint Dominic Đinh Đạt

Saint Nicholas Bùi Ðúc Thê´

Saint Olga of Kiev

Saint Kaleb the Ethiopian

Saint James Intercisus

Rosalia of Palermo

Blessed Ceferino Namuncurá

Blessed Margaret Pole

Saint Pulcheria

Saint Moses the Strong

Saint Albert Chmielowski

Virgin Mary

Talented

Blessed Denis of the Nativity

Blessed Dina Bélanger

Blessed Benedict Daswa

Blessed Concepción Cabrera de Armida

Blessed Nicolas Steno

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

Blessed Francisca de Paula de Jesus

Blessed Hermann of Reichenau

Saint Hildegard of Bingen

Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara

Blessed María Romero Meneses

Saint Martin de Porres

Saint Jerome

Saint Macrina the Younger

Saint Thorlak Thorhallson

Unshakable

Saint Josephine Bakhita

Saint John Colobus

Saint Leopold Mandić

Saint Mary MacKillop

Saint Oscar Romero

Blessed Ana of the Angels Monteagudo

Saint Margaret of Castello

Blessed Peter Donders

Saint Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayès

Saint Monica

Blessed Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung

Saint Columba of Iona

Saint Katharine Drexel

Saint Serapion the Sindonite

Saint Teresa of Calcutta

Young Saints

Blessed Carlo Acutis

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

Blessed Marie-Clémentine Anuarite Nengapeta

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Blessed Cecilia Butsi Wongwai

Blesseds Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa

Saint Germaine Cousin

Blessed Benedetta Bianchi Porro

Saints Perpetua and Felicity

Blessed Paul Thoj Xyooj

Saint Teresa of the Andes

Saint Eulalia of Mérida

Saint Joan of Arc

Saint Peter Yu Tae-chol

Saint Jacinta Marto

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 Meg’s other works. I can easily recommend this 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 series sure to become a family favourite!