Book Review: Heidi Bratton board books

Today I attended the Boston Catholic Women's Conference with my daughters (aged 1 and 3) and my husband, who was there to take some video footage for a special project he's working on for the archdiocese.

Especially nice among the various encounters of the day was meeting author, photographer and mother Heidi Bratton and her family, who live in the Fall River Diocese of Massachusetts. I bought four of her beautiful board books for the girls but not before having an extensive conversation with Heidi and her whole family. Heidi is lovely and we really connected as fellow mothers. Her children and husband were also charming to chat with and the children delighted in pointing to each of the books saying, "She's the little girl in those pictures," and, "He's the baby in this one," and "This one is me." They were very obviously proud of their mother's work.

All of the books feature beautiful black and white photography that really won my heart. As with the best picture books, these are as enjoyable for me to read and look at as they are for the children. I was initially resolved to limit myself to one book but just couldn't do it. The more I looked the harder it was to narrow my choice.




My favorite of the books was The Little Shepherd, pictures by Heidi Bratton text by Sally Anne Conan. A retelling in black and white photographs of the parable of the Good Shepherd. It opens with a photo of an ewe nuzzling a lamb and then follows a little boy with a shepherd's crook searching for a little girl who carries a stuffed lamb. The text is simple and charming and the pictures captivating. I especially liked that the book followed a hide-and-seek formula having the shepherd look for the sheep "over" and "under," "up" and "down."




Count Your Blessings pictures by Heidi Bratton text by Sally Anne Conan. This is, as the title suggests, a counting book that goes from 1 (Splashy Puddles) to 10 (Loving You). Little ones will love the simple rhymes and pictures of children and babies. My favorite photos were of a grandmother reading to two little boys (Cozy Places), a girl examining a butterfly-festooned Easter basket (Pretty Wings), a little girl kneeling to pray beside a bed covered with stuffed animals (Snuggly Toys), and a beautiful child's Nativity set (Someone New).




Spirit! by Heidi Bratton. Beautiful black and white photos of children with one word captions: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faith, Gentleness, Self-control, Spirit. Perfectly matched pictures and text makes this a very meditative book for adults as well. The sort of pictures I often asked my students to use as writing prompts when I taught composition.




Little Ways to Give God Praise pictures by Heidi Bratton text by Sally Anne Conan. Rhyming text that expresses a child's spirituality, very reminiscent of the Little Way of St. Therese. Children praise God by clapping, dancing, singing, running, with others and alone, at church and at home, reading books and helping their parents. Mostly, by being themselves, childlike. A good meditation for moms and dads as well.

Heidi Bratton's books are available from Paulist Press and from Amazon: Heidi Bratton Books.

Book Review: We Go to Mass by George Brundage

I tend to be a tough critic when it comes to catechetical materials for kids; but I'm rather pleased with this simple board book. Each page shows a picture of the Mass with a simple accompanying text.

I'm not in love with the illustrations; but they aren't ugly as so much art in children's religious books is and they do highlight clearly the important parts of the Mass. I like the large crucifix behind the altar. I think its good that the images are drawn so as to appeal to the widest possible Catholic audience. For example, there are no female altar servers, and it isn't clear whether the girl is receiving communion by mouth or in her hand. The Mass is celebrated ad populum, so it is clearly a 'Novus Ordo' celebration, not the extraordinary form; but otherwise the book doesn't seem to take sides in what are frequently controversial matters.

I really like the text. It is simple and clear and echoes the language of the Mass: "We praise God in union with the Angels and the Saints." It doesn't water down Eucharistic theology: "We worship Jesus as the bread is changed into His Body," and "We receive Jesus in Communion, God's greatest Gift to us."

I think this will be a useful book for my girls to bring to Mass to help them follow along. It's not quite a missal; but the stage before a first missal for small children who aren't reading yet but who enjoy being read to.

Benjamin's Box

I ordered Benjamin's Box: The Story of the Resurrection Eggs (Melody Carlson and Jack Stockman) for Easter, but Amazon UK's supply was delayed and it didn't arrive until today. My little one is still enjoying her Resurrection Box, and the book is a little old for her, so although it is still Eastertide I'm going to put it away for next year.

Benjamin's Box was written to use alongside this set of Resurrection Eggs. Benjamin, a young boy living in Jerusalem, collects a number of items in his treasure box as he follows Jesus during his final days. The items in the eggs match the book, and give the child both a tactile way to explore the story and an aide-memoire to recall the events of the first Easter.

The text is fairly simple - fine for preschoolers, though too wordy for toddlers. If I had used it this year I would just have looked at the pictures with my Little Cherub and talked about the items rather than try to read the book to her. Great literature it is not, but it is readable enough. Here is a sample:

One bright spring morning, Benjamin sat outside in the sunshine. In his hands was a wooden box.
"Hi Benjamin," called his friend, Eli. "What's that you've got?"
"It's my treasure box," said Benjamin. "My grandfather gave it to me before he died last year. He said it was very,very special."
Eli opened it and looked in. "There's nothing in it except for some old straw. How can this be a treasure box?"
Benjamin shrugged. "I don't have any real treasures yet. But my grandfather said this straw came from the bed of a baby who was born in a stable. My grandfather was a shepherd then, and he said the baby would grow up to be a king."

The option to buy the resurrection eggs ready made make this a very simple way of setting up a hands-on Easter story activity ... one that can be repeated year after year. It would also be quite easy to fill one's own set of eggs, or to put the items into a treasure box filled with straw (shredded yellow tissue paper would do nicely). To make your own set you would need:

1. Small toy donkey (or fake fur would also fit with the text)
2. Coins
3. Cup or goblet
   
4. Praying hands (a printed picture would do, and a twig would work as an alternative - again, this fits with the text)
5. Leather strip
6. Crown of thorns (or points broken of cocktail sticks to represent thorns)
7. Nails
   
8. Dice
9. Spear (I would use a Playmobil spear)
   
10. Small piece of white cloth
11. A stone
12. Nothing! - the twelfth egg is empty to represent the empty tomb

The book is published by an evangelical Christian apostolate, with a "Ten Tips to Leading Children to Christ" included at the end. As an adult it is easy to see that the last page of the story has an evangelical slant, with the emphasis on forgiveness and telling others the good news, though I personally wouldn't have a problem reading it to my daughter. During the page about the Last Supper the book says "But what did Jesus mean when he said the wine was like his blood and would be spilled, and the bread was to be broken like his body. It made no sense." I would either tweak the wording or point out that of course, we know that it does make sense because the wine and bread really were His Body and Blood. These quibbles aside, I think the book can easily be used by Catholic families to help bring the Easter story alive for young children.