Looking for some Christmas gift ideas for the Catholic kids in your life? Black Friday shopping? Let me see if I can help!
Here are book suggestions and book reviews of all the Catholic books that our kids have enjoyed. Please let me know what other books should be added to this list.
Best Catholic Children's Books Table of Contents
Click the links below for more information:
- Best Catholic Children's Books for Ages 5-9
- "The Lego Catechism": Catechism of the Seven Sacraments
- The Weight of a Mass
- Picture Book of Saints by Father Lawrence G. Lovasik
- Theology of the Body for Younger Kids Books (Board Books): Every Body Is a Gift: God Made Us to Love, Everybody Has a Body: God Made Boys and Girls, and Every Body Is Smart: God Helps Me Listen and Choose
- Marian Consecration for Children
- Best Classic or Vintage Catholic Children's Books for Ages 10-15
Best New Catholic Children's Books for Ages 5-9
1. "The Lego Catechism": Catechism of the Seven Sacraments
by Mary O'Neill Kevin O'Neill
My kids have LOVED this book! And so have we, the parents.
One of our favorite illustrations is pregnant lego Mary.
As a theologian, I love all the typology in this book. They make it easy for young minds to understand big ideas. They show how Mary is the New Ark of the Covenant. They show how the Passover Lamb prefigures the Eucharist. Amazing!
Can you imagine your kids knowing, not just the Catechism, but Scott Hahn-level Bible typology from childhood? What a difference that could make?
2. The Weight of a Mass by Josephine Nobisso and Katalin Szegedi (Illustrator)
This has been much beloved book in my family. Beautifully illustrated, this is exactly the kind of seed you want to plant in your child's mind. The unseen, but very powerful effect of a Holy Mass.
I poured over this as a child, and now my kids do. There's just something about the illustrations that sends me right back to childhood.
4. Theology of the Body for Younger Kids Books (Board Books): Every Body Is a Gift: God Made Us to Love, Everybody Has a Body: God Made Boys and Girls, and Every Body Is Smart: God Helps Me Listen and Choose
These are made by Monica Ashour, the executive director of Theology of the Body Evangelization Team (TOBET), a trusted source for Theology of the Body materials.
What I've taken from these books - and hopefully my kids, too - is that you don't need money to give gifts to your loved ones. Money is not the measure of our love and the substance of our dignity. Kids can use the language of their bodies - hugs and kisses - as their gift to us. (Of course, this doesn't mean give hugs and kisses to strangers)
This teaches children not to objectify themselves and their bodies.
TOBET also has a series of Theology of the Body books for older kids, too:
These do a great job of building on the lessons of the younger kids' books. Plus, what I love, they are teaching children about Natural Law.
5. Marian Consecration for Children by Carrie Gress
This one isn't exactly a children's book. It's a book for children. My family does this Marian Consecration with our kids every year around Christmas.
My wife and I renew our Consecration on January 1st, the Solemnity of the Motherhood of Mary, so we do our and our kids' Consecration through Advent and Christmas.
This book includes selections from other classic children's books like the Chronicles of Narnia, Anne of Green Gables, Secret Garden, etc. Gress uses these to teach kids about virtue, in particular the Virgin Mary's virtues. We really have enjoyed using this book over the last few years.
1. The Father Finn Books: Tom Playfair, Harry Dee, and Percy Winn
Born to Irish immigrants in St. Louis in 1859, Father Francis J. Finn loved to read Charles Dickens as a boy. Father Charles Coppens of The Pickwick Papers inspired Finn to become a priest. Father Finn started writing his debut novel Tom Playfair even before his ordination. Coincidentally, shortly thereafter, Father Finn was assigned to St. Mary s College in Kansas. There he dealt with unruly boys on a daily basis, not unlike Saint John Bosco.
Father Finn would write twenty-seven books all together, including That Football Game, Claude Lightfoot, Ethelred Preston, Lucky Bob, His Luckiest Year, Facing Danger, and Cupid of Champion.
Here are the TAN book reprints of Father Finn's Tom Playfair series:
2. The Vision Books of Saints: Kateri Tekakwitha, Saint Joan: The Girl Soldier, Father Marquette and the Great Rivers, etc.
My kids have really enjoyed the lives of the Saints by Vision Books. Vision Books has created a ton of these, too. Practically every Saint has his or her own book. This is great for savvy parents and Godparents with eye toward Confirmation and their child's choice of patron saint.
You can click on any of the below covers to see the book on Amazon:
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