My Favorite Picture Books: Angel in the Waters

Angel in the Waters by Regina Doman, pictures by Ben Hatke

I've written about this book before, but not as part of My Favorite Picture Books, and it certainly deserves a place among them. Today is a perfect day as it is the Feast of the Guardian Angels and we'll be celebrating by reading it together.

It is a sweet way to introduce to children the idea of a guardian angel, one who will watch over and help guide us for our entire lives and into the next life.

Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom God's love commits me here,
Ever this day, be at my side,
To light and guard, rule and guide.

Amen. 

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.

Guarded All Our Lives

Angel in the Waters by Regina Doman with pictures by Ben Hatke

I foolishly did not believe all the reviews I'd read of this wonderful book and am so glad I finally decided to read it myself. The story follows one little baby in the womb until birth (and a bit after). The baby converses with the angel, learning a bit about life and the world to come. The angel is depicted as a group of stars, which is not only beautiful, but gave me an opportunity to talk to the children a bit about how we don't know what angels look like, since they do not have bodies (though they can appear to people in certain situations). In fact, I think all the illustrations are lovely.

The angel, present from the very beginning of life, promises to be with the child always. The baby says, "I don't like this world. It is too cold. It is too big." The angel replies:

It is very big, but you will grow big. It will feel better and warmer which you are bigger. But there is another, bigger world outside this one. Someday I will take you there.

Such a wonderful way to think of our journey to the next life, in the care of our guardian angel.

This book is, of course, promoted widely as a pro-life book, which it is inasmuch as it portrays a baby's thoughts from conception. It is more than that, though; it is a lovely book all on its own. It would be a wonderful book to share with older siblings as they anticipate the birth of a new baby brother or sister (especially as the baby is never identified as a boy or a girl). We read the book in honor of Respect Life Month (not that I mentioned that to the kids). I think it could be a good book for the Feast of the Guardian Angels as well, conveniently also in October.

First Son and First Daughter were both enthralled, and we talked about how they grew in Mama's tummy, just like this baby. And they also have an angel all their own.

For those that may be concerned, the birth itself is not depicted, just as a time of "moving." The few pages after the birth also give an opportunity to talk about why newborn babies cry when they are cold or alone.

I love the very last picture, as baby, who has grown, is toddling along, holding onto father's hand.

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.