St. Bernadette and St. Joan of Arc by Pauline Press

I found these advertised in Faith and Family Magazine, and had to order them immediately.

It was an excellent choice. I am proud of my fellow Paulines. They have produced 2 quality graphic novels/comics of saints. Not that I want them to rush to get more because I want them to keep the same high-quality, but I want more!

My tweens aren’t quite as enthused as I am, but both buried their noses in the books the moment they arrived. I don’t suppose arguing over who gets to read a saint book counts as a virtue? My non-reader refused to read them because she saw it as a trick maneuver on my part. I make her read chapter books on saints. Guess who snuck them to bed last night?

The books aren’t bound; they are stapled in the comic book style that they are, hence the price is right. They are high-quality pages and illustrations. My children seem to keep the details of the stories in mind better after reading these. A full story is told of both Bernadette and Joan of Arc, and the details are blended well with action.

I even learned things I didn’t remember before. Like the first Lourde’s miracle was the healing of a villager’s blind eye.

The books end with paragraphs dedicated to the characters in the novel that further explain what happened to them… I knew that Mary, for example, didn’t create the spring at Lourdes but revealed it. This is explained in the back, and I was thinking, isn’t that Mary’s role? She isn’t the creator of the world, but she reveals Him to us. And, as I’m learning from Mark Shea, so, too, do the dogmas of The Immaculate Conception, etc. Ok, now I’m getting beyond the books, but isn’t that the point? It’s a fine starting place!

SAFETY RATING: 3 Flags