There are several books that we have used over the years with our children. Many are books about saints, specifically saints during the month of December. Our little Catholic Library began as a Christmas season book collection as a way to enrich the Advent Season with our children. From there we built on saints and their feast days from throughout the rest of the year. Now our little library has a variety of books about saints, prayer, sacraments, and catechism.
I thought about putting together a formal written list here, and perhaps I will add that to this post at a later time, but what will be easier is to do is include the link to my book list in Amazon at the bottom of this post for you to see. By no means are we advocating that you buy any of these books or that you buy them through Amazon. (I’d suggest checking out used books or second hand stores first!) I created this list for past classes as a way to share book ideas with parents. I am discovering new books every year so this list will continue to grow. The book list contains mostly picture books aimed for the elementary school aged children, as that was the CCD level I have been teaching for the past decade. The list also includes resource books and textbooks that have been useful for teaching. If we reference a book in our group session, that book will be on this list.
I want to take a moment and recommend a specific author who I have found to be immensely beneficial to the Catholic home. Especially a home with young children. Tomie DePaola is a very beloved author in our home and has an outstanding assortment of great stories many are often about saints. His website https://www.tomie.com is a great way to learn about the various other books about saints he has written. A little digression here but if you want to read a really beautiful story I highly recommend (often and always!) the book: The Clown of God. It is a retelling of a French legend of a Christmas miracle. It is one of the most beautiful children’s stories I have ever read. I can’t recommend it enough. It is one of those books that is gift worthy. One of my favorite books that covers the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary is Tomie DePaola’s Mary The Mother of Jesus. He has written another beautiful book The Lady of Guadalupe. We read this book to the children in December to coincide with the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th. It’s a lovely book and I highly recommend it. Many of his books are out of print and can be tricky to find. They can be found in ebook forms. If you want a hard copy of his books my best advice is to check out the local used book store. I have purchased several Tomie DePaola titles there for great prices.
Mrs. Fredlake’s CCD Book List: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1NNNBODKENLBZ?ref_=wl_share
The Small Pencil Catechist 