All the Angel Stories: A Book of Angels

A Book of Angels
by Marigold Hunt

I originally bought this book when the advisory board for Mater Amabilis was considering it as an in-print substitute for reading in Advent or Lent. We ended up suggesting a different book, but since I had it, I read it with Second Son this year. I read a weekend ahead, and he read it independently and narrated it to me.

Marigold Hunt, of course, is marvelous. A Book of Angels has a tone similar to A Life of Our Lord for Children, The First Christians, and St. Patrick's Summer. (I somehow missed ever reviewing A Life of Our Lord for Children.) She speaks directly to the reader, a child of heart if not in years, sharing retellings of stories from the Bible and our faith.

There are thirteen chapters, covering basic information on angels, their appearances in the Bible, their role in history, and the hints of their future roles based on the book of Revelation.

Hunt does not follow only a literal reading of the Bible. In the chapter The Beginning of Everything, she writes:

Just what they did, whether it was eating forbidden fruit, like Adam and Eve, or something quite different, we don't know. But we know why they did it. What tempted them was the Devil's promise: "You shall be like gods, knowing good and evil." (p. 17)

Again, the chapter on Job does not assume Job is literally true.

At the beginning he put a conversation between God and the Devil to show how God happened to be so hard on Job. Of course, the Devil doesn't really go up to Heaven and stand among the angels, chatting with God. But poets are allowed to invent things like that. (p. 99)

I think there's one full page illustration for each chapter. My favorite one is that of Gabriel appearing to Mary . Mary's face is just lovely.

This may be my favorite Marigold Hunt book, though it would be a tough competition with St. Patrick's Summer, which Second Son also read this year. It's shorter than St. Patrick and would be appropriate for even younger children. (Mater Amabilis recommends St. Patrick's Summer for Level 2 Year 2, fifth grade.) The focus on angels gave a new perspective on salvation history, from beginning to end.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links. I purchased this book.

The Catholic Company Review: Celebrating Saints and Seasons

Celebrating Saints and Seasons: Hundreds of Activities for Catholic Children by Jeanne Hunt

I was so excited to review this book for The Catholic Company!

For each month of the year (with Lent in March and Advent in December), Ms. Hunt provides a list of feast days and holidays with suggestions for ways to make the day meaningful for children of various ages. Activities are marked for either school or home, though a great many of them are appropriate for both.

Ms. Hunt begins each month with descriptions and ideas of the major holidays (like Lent, Advent, Thanksgiving). Then she has a section for "Saints and Heroes" which includes feast days for particular saints or angels and also notable historical figures (mainly American). Finally, the month ends with a section for prayers or prayer services.

I started with December and Advent and found quite a few good ideas I hadn't seen in quite the same way. I especially liked the suggestions for family activities to help slow the season down and spend time with each other or helping our neighbors. Most of these were activities that would involve a significant portion of the day and would be better with older children, but I think we'll try to incorporate something like this in our Advent plans for next year.

I found some new ideas in every month, especially for holidays that aren't feast days like Kwanzaa and the Festival of Tachiu. I'm not interested in celebrating these holidays in big ways, but I think it's would be nice to talk about them with the kids.

I also liked the chapter at the end on special occasions which included some ideas for family vacations. I think it would have been nice to include a celebration for the anniversary of baptisms there. It's something new our family has started this school year and I think it's a wonderful.

This book probably wouldn't work as a complete resource. For many saints' feast days, for example, Ms. Hunt writes a sentence or two about the saint and then suggests an activity (many of which are good ideas), but if you really want to share the story of the saint with children, you'd want more information. With a good library and a decent search engine, it's not really a problem. A detailed history for each saint would bog the book down considerably.

I think it's odd that the prayers for each month come at the end of the chapter. I felt like they should appear with the appropriate holiday or feast day. Also, some of the prayers were for feast days not mentioned earlier so it wasn't really clear why celebrating the feast was worthwhile. Frankly, I found many of the prayers a bit hokey. I can't imagine saying most of them with my children, let alone Kansas Dad or a teacher in a classroom. (Just to be clear, some of the activities are also a little hokey, though in my experience sometimes children enjoy those the most;  you just have to know your family or your classroom.)

Overall, I think this is a good addition to our liturgical year library. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as the only book in a liturgical library, but I could never have just one myself anyway.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. I did not receive any compensation for this review other than a copy of the book. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Celebrating Saints and Seasons . They are also a great source for first communion gifts and baptism gifts.

Little Angel Crafts

Unless it's cross-stitching, I'm not much of a crafty person. I especially dread the crafts that take a lot of work on my part and then just take up space.

But...crafts are important for young children. It seems they not only give little hands something to do, but encourage skills like cutting and drawing. Two weeks ago, I took advantage of two feast days to introduce some crafts.

First, at the end of September, we had the feast day of the archangels. First Son loves the archangels, of course. What's not to love about St. Michael? (First Son learned all about him from the first half of Cat Chat's Amazing Angels and Super Saints. One of these days we're going to have to buy the whole episode.) I found this archangel pattern at Ana Braga-Henebry's Journal. It was very easy for me to print and cut out the angel pattern. The kids colored them and taped them together. I don't have a picture of the final product. They had a fine time making them, but didn't seem interested in playing with them.

For the Feast of the Guardian Angels on October 2nd, I first planned to make this mobile. I printed the large template five times (one for each member of the family). We all colored angels for other members of the family which the kids thought was a little funny. I ended up discarding the mobile idea when I couldn't find a place I'd actually like to hang it. Instead, I taped the angels up on our closet door and plan to leave them there for a while.


I like crafts more if they end up creating some decorations for us. I think it gives the children a greater purpose, too. They're not just filling time and leaving a mess; they're helping to make our home a beautiful place to live.