Saint Andre Bessette by Patricia Jabionski, FSP

You can, hypothetically anyway, have too much chocolate. But can you have too many books on the saints? Hypothetically, no. We haven’t reached saturation point yet,anyway.

Saint Andre Bessett is one of a set of chapter books designed for younger tweens.
What I like about this series from the Paulines is that it fills a gap between the many beautiful picture books of saints’ lives for young children and the biographical stories of the Vision series for older ages. I also like them better than the short excerpts of Saint-a-Day books. With those books, my kids pick up valuable lessons but don’t hang onto much of the details of the saints’ lives. The longer books give a solid background that they tend to remember better.

For homeschooling parents, especially those of us who like literature-based curriculum, the series is perfect. You can match the lives of saints to the historical period that you’re studying. It’s a rich addition to a Catholic curriculum and a necessity if you are using anything secular or protestant. (I think for users of Sonlight Curriculum, this is just right).

For parents whose children attend non-Catholic schools, I think these are fabulous because you’re in the same position as parents using secular or Protestant curriculum. The only Catholic they are certain to meet in their studies is Galileo. Saturating your children with the stories of saints is just what you (actually, they) need.

I think it would be harder if these books were not part of a curriculum. My children didn’t naturally gravitate to this one; I had to read it aloud. They found it interesting but not riveting. So we took it in small doses which is pretty easy to do with these shorter chapters. It isn’t written in a complicated style.

If there are other books like this that bridge the gap for this age, please let me know!

SAFETY RATING: 3 Flags

This review was written as part of the Catholic Book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. To find more information on Saint Andre Bessette visit The Catholic Company.

The Catholic Review Program offers Catholic bloggers a chance to receive books in exchange for their frank opinion of the book being posted in a blog review.