210: Saint Angela Merici: Leading People to God by Sister Maryellen Keefe

Saint Angela Merici: Leading People to God by Sister Maryellen Keefe. Illustrated by Augusta Curreli. English translation by Mary Cabrini Durkin, OSU & Patricia Edward Jablonski, FSP (US) - (Canada)
Along the Paths of the Gospel series

Pages: 71
Ages: 10+ (younger as a read-aloud)
Finished: Jul. 20, 2012
First Published: 2002
Publisher: Pauline Books and Media
Genre: Children, Biography, Christian, Saints, Catholic, History
Rating: 4/5

First sentence: "In the little lakeside town of Desenzano in northern Italy, stands a huge castle that overlooks the surrounding valley."

Publisher's Summary: "When Angela Merici was a young girl, she loved fun and games. She also loved to read about the lives of the saints. God gave Angela a new kind of mission to carry out. Through her love and her work to lead others to God, Angela became a saint herself! Beautiful color illustrations on every page."

Acquired:  Purchased a new copy from a Catholic Homeschool Company.

Reason for Reading: Ds read aloud to me as his reader.

Beautiful book the size of a chapter book but presented in the format of a picture book with fully illustrated pages and chunks of text on each page.  This is the inspirational story of Angela Merici who became the founder of the Order of Ursulines.  A woman of the 16th century who devoted her life to God and helping the poor, especially girls and women who were homeless or without prospects.  Angela became a lay sister and did not marry but did not become a nun, preferring to stay and live amongst the people she was helping. The story is entertaining, the illustrations beautiful and the reading experience both a challenge and satisfying for my son.  He started off quite shaky with it but by the end of the book was quite confident though I did need to help him quite a bit.  I'm looking forward to the other books in this series.