Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions: A Review

As a Catholic convert, and a mother with small children, I've been passionate about learning all that I can about the traditions and celebrations that ocur throughout the liturgical year.  I'd spent the last year trying to come up with feast day ideas that would make the liturgical year come alive for our daughters, and had scoured the internet and the books that we already had for ideas.  I wanted to learn more about traditions that, as a convert, I wasn't familiar with.  
When I was given the chance to review The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions, I was thrilled.  Our cross country move this summer meant the book had to chase us across the country with the rest of our mail, but when it finally arrived I was thrilled.  I was even more excited when the book not only met, but exceeded my expectations.  
I spent the afternoon, in the sweltering heat, absorbed, as the girls splashed around me in their kiddie pool.  Ideas for the upcoming year were unfolding in my imagination.  
The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions is perfect for teachers, parents, or anyone looking to pass on the faith, and the traditions that nurture that faith, to the children in their lives.  It would be excellent for a teacher in a formal classroom who's looking to add the rhythm of the liturgical year to learning time, and it's perfect for parents who want to make Catholic celebrations a vibrant part of their day to day life.
One thing that I appreciated that really set this book apart from other books that I've read, is that it not only gives ideas and actvities for crafts for Catholic Holy Days, it also gives ideas to help Catholic families celebrate traditionally secular holidays in a faith-filled way.  And that is one of the many things that I appreciate about this book!  
I also really appreciate the month by month format of this book.  The first page of the month tells you what you have to look forward to and then you can flip through the chapter and come up with plans and ideas for celebrating in the upcoming days.
As a mom, this is definitely one of my favorite books.  I've already spent hours pouring over it and I know that it's going to be a well used book for years to come!
I wrote this review of The Big Book Of Catholic Customs And Traditions For Children's Faith Formation for the free Catholic Book review program, created by Aquinas and More Catholic Goods. Aquinas and More is the largest on-line Catholic bookstore.

I receive free books from Tiber River in exchange for reviewing them!

5 comments:

  1. Hey! I am so glad you reviewed this book! I have been looking at it on amazon forever, trying to decide if I wanted to order it. It is so hard to decide based off of the reviews posted on amazon sometimes...

    Question: What age range do you see this book as appropriate for?

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  2. Hi K10! I would say that the kind of activities start being practical around the age of three, but get steadily more practical as they hit elementary school age. I'm not sure how much Sadie necessarily got out of the feast day celebrations that we did this past year, but I wanted her to have memories of them from when she was really little and this book is really good helping with ideas for that sort of thing. Hope that helps!

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  3. Well the book was definitely appropriate for Sadie in terms of age. She just turned 4. That picture below is from the celebration of Mary's birthday.

    I would say that this sort of crafty book would be good for any age except maybe teenagers. Even then I doubt that they would object when part of the celebrations in this book end up in goodies like cupcakes.

    ~thomist

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  4. Well "Thomist",

    I'd say that more teenagers would like the stuff in the book as long as they can clam that they are only doing it because they are helping younger siblings. (If they have been doing it for a while. Teens love traditions even if they don't want to admit it.)

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  5. Fun! I may have to get this book. Hannah is still only 2.5, but I know she would LOVE to celebrate Mary's birthday, especially if she got to eat some cupcakes too.:)

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