Angel Food for Boys & Girls, Volume I

Angel Food #5

by Gerald T. Brennan

These Angel Food books, filled with Christ-like charm, simplicity, and attractive truths, are here served for the additional delight of the many who have enjoyed other Father Brennan books.   Angle Food for Boys & Girls, Volume I, includes over two dozen short stories, including:  The Devil at the Door, Marty's First Mass, The Girl in the Shabby Dress, The Boy Who Made God Smile,  and many more.  Each volume also has a topical index relating various subjects in the stories to chapters in the Baltimore Catechism.

Genres: Childrens

114 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Rev. Fr. Gerald T. Brennan attended Rochester’s St. Andrew’s and St. Bernard’s seminaries and was ordained in 1923. After serving as an assistant for nine years, he became pastor of Mount Carmel Church and later of St. Bridget’s.

He had a wonderful rapport with children, teaching those in his parish schools, as well as hundreds of public'school children. During the weekly children’s Mass at his parish, he preached directly to the children, modeling his homilies on Christ’s example of telling a story and drawing a moral from it.
A friend insisted repeatedly that Fr. Brennan publish the stories from his homilies, and when he finally dared Fr. Brennan to do so, Fr. Brennan accepted the challenge and wrote his first book: Angel Food, a book of stories with practical lessons intended to help priests to teach the Faith to children.
His next book, Angel City, written specifically for children and at the request his friend and his publisher, was so popular that Fr. Brennan received letters from children all over the world, asking him to write more books. And more books followed: The Ghost of Kingdom Come, The Man Who Dared a King, The Good Rad Roy, and others.
Like Christ, who used words and images familiar to his hearers, Fr. Brennan spoke the language of children in his books. Full of simplicity and a sense of wonder, his words continue to bring the Faith alive for today’s young readers.

Reviews

[Fatima TheGreat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 1939, Angel Food for Boys and Girls is a collection of short stories that Fr.
Gerald T. Brennan told the children of his congregation. He was encouraged to publish his delightful stories and once he did, they became quite popular.

Some stories in this collection, especially the first five, are quite excellent. Not all of the stories are of equal caliber, but they are all enjoyable. You will have to remind young readers that the stories are fictional, they are meant to be a fun way to teach a lesson, not to represent reality or high brow theology. We read this book as a family, reading one story each night before bedtime and, to my surprise, even my older readers enjoyed listening in. It led to some thoughtful discussion about our thoughts and experiences. The book was written by a Catholic priest, but I think any Christian family might enjoy them. I have read reviews online indicating that these stories are scary- but we did not find them to be scary at all. We have a healthy respect for the realities of heaven and hell, so we do not find discussions of these topics to be frightening in any way. We are looking forward to reading the other volumes and continue the family talks.

Age level: All ages. However, I can see why some might want to wait until their children are old enough to have conversations about the stories. I recommend previewing each story to know what subject matter is coming up. The stories were originally told over a length of time, so as you proceed you will find yourself cycling through the seasons. If you are a "Santa" family this book assumes your children know the real meaning of Christmas - so if your children believe that Santa brings all the gifts you might have a revolt on your hands!

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of a set (3 or 4). I found these to be sweet stories that can be read at bedtime to probably 6-7 year old age children. They are stories using examples to teach kindness, values, and beliefs and sacraments of the Catholic Church. While reading I kept thinking of the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”. It was nice to read some thing wholesome yet still interesting. Each story is a few pages long so perfect for nighttime and a little discussion would follow.

I’m keeping them to read to grandkids some day.

[Prince Cad Ali Cad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic - closer to five stars than four. Twenty-eight tiny stories instructing children in a variety of topics. Some are funny ("123,456 Mosquitos" and "Thirty-Five Cakes") some are rather sad ("Chippy"), and some are particularly beautiful ("The Man in the Blue Overalls"), but all of them are inspiring and well written.

The last story ("Denny Dinwit") is a favorite - who knew Father Brennan knew the guy who drew "Bringing Up Father"? Awesome stuff.

[Gillian · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm actually quite shocked at the doctrines taught in this. Is this genuinely what Catholics believe? So many that have nothing to do with Scriptures and which are even at odds with it in many places.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angel Food for Boys and Girls is a four-volume set of hardcover books that span over 100 pages each. The books were written by Fr. Gerald T. Brennan. "Fr. Brennan was a pastor in New York, beloved by the children in his parish, to whom he told delightful stories. At the urging of friends, he published many of his tales in numerous popular books" I was stunned to learn that he was from New York as the Angel Food for Boys and Girls is written in a folksy way with stories that sound like they came from a simple country parish priest. I guess I would compare it to if there was a priest on Andy Griffith. These stories are what I would classify as modern day parables for kids. However, since they were originally published in the 1950s, I'm not sure many people would still call them "modern." At the end of every volume is an "Index of Topics" that correspond to lessons found in the Baltimore Catechism.

The title of the first story in Volume One, entitled "The Devil at the Door" had me a little worried, but once I started reading it, I learned that it was about a child on Halloween. Fr. Brennan used the example of wearing masks on Halloween to demonstrate how we all wear masks every day. He went on to say that even though we can hide behind our masks to others, God always sees the real us. Another story I enjoyed was "A Box of Hail Marys." This story told about a woman who went to Heaven on Mary's birthday. She felt bad about not having a gift for her, but her gift "arrived before her." She had said three Hail Marys a day for her whole life, and that was her gift to the Virgin Mary - a box of Hail Marys.

Each story is about 3 to 4 pages long with 28 stories in Volumes One and Two, 31 in Volume Three, and 34 in Volume Four. It's hard to pick a favorite story in this set, as Fr. Brennan paints wonderful pictures in your head, all while teaching you a lesson. That might be the beauty of these stories. Your kids won't know they are being taught a lesson until it hits them in the end. All the lessons aren't preachy, though. Yes, there is a fair share of things not to do, but there is also a lot of emphasis on building a relationship with God, Mary, and the saints. This is refreshing, because we as Catholics don't tend to emphasize having a personal relationship with God, when that is what God wants. He wants us to be able to call on Him at anytime for anything, not just when we are in trouble or need something. Another wonderful aspect of these books, is that the stories have neither protagonists that are all young children. Your children will have examples from children their own age as well as examples of adults too. That is important, because it means that the lessons aren't just for a specific age range of children. In fact, I think I got as much out of these stories as the children did if not more.

So whether you are a new parent or a seasoned pro, you will want to invest in these books. They are also useful for teachers and catechists, and with the "Index of Topics," I mentioned earlier, you can supplement a lesson plan with a story from these books. As someone who reads A LOT of books, I'll be the first to tell you that there are a ton of books out there that will be competing for your child's attention, many with questionable morals and values. We need more books like the Angel Food for Boys and Girls, as well as other titles from Neumann Press, to help combat this current trend. I know both I and my children will enjoy these books for years to come, and with the high quality of these books, I'm sure my grandchildren (God-willing) will enjoy them too.

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has made me realise so much about
how many ways there are too obey God and too
see Satan from different angels!🐸