Family in Feast and Feria

Sometimes I just can't get a good title for a post to come to mind. But I wanted to share two children's titles I saw today in my local Catholic store regardless of a good subject line.

The first book is The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe Empress of the Americas by C. Lourdes Walsh. I think this is a self-published book, and at least on my computer, the site is extremely slow, but don't let that be a stumbling block. I didn't buy the book today, as I was counting my pennies, but plan on doing so before December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is one of my favorite apparitions of Our Lady, mostly because the image and the message of Our Lady's words are so simple and loving, just like a mother. Mary shows her true maternal love to us through Juan Diego. This story can be told to young and old alike without veiling or changing anything. Mary's words are so clear and simple that even my son, at the age of two, just fell in love with Our Lady.

While I'm so fond of Tomie dePaola's book Lady of Guadalupe I fell in love with this new little book. The illustrations are just gorgeous. There are 18 full-color photographs of the paintings of artist Jorge Sánchez-Hernández from his “Nican Mopohua” collection. The cover only gives a glimpse of every page with rich color illustrations (similar to the cover). The text is wonderful, appealing to children and adults. Matched with the paintings, you can almost hear Mary's sweet voice telling Juan Diego "Am I not here, your Mother?..." There is a section in the back that explains the history of the Aztecs with a warning to parents that it might be a little graphic for younger children. It's a little pricey for a paperback (size 8 1/2 x 11), but really worth it. You and your child will just pore over the images again and again. The author wrote a little essay about her book on Catholic Exchange.

The second title is a reprint from 1951 entitled If Jesus Came to My House by Joan Gale Thomas. I purchased two copies today, a copy for my son and the other for one of my nephews. This is an absolutely beautiful book, both illustrations and text. I love the simple drawings (black and white and red), and the text is written in rhyming poetry is so sweet to read out loud.

If Jesus came to my house
and knocked upon the door
I'm sure I'd be more happy
than I've ever been before.

If Jesus came to my house
I'd like Him best to be
about the age that I am
and about the height of me.