A Saint a Day: A 365-Day Devotional Featuring Christian Saints

by Meredith Hinds, Isabel Muñoz (Illustrator)

Teach your child to walk in faith, act justly, and lead with kindness and humility with this 365-day devotional for kids . A Saint a Day includes fascinating historical stories as it introduces young readers to over 300 saints who did extraordinary things for God. Mother Teresa left her family at age 18 to become a missionary. St. Patrick helped spread Christianity to Ireland. St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin--and also had a pet lion! Written for ages 8 to 12, A Saint a Day inspires young readers with remarkable stories of people who made extraordinary choices to love and serve God. Featuring popular saints such as Teresa of Ávila, Francis of Assisi, Juan Diego, and Thomas Aquinas, each of the 365 devotions This daily devotional for kids A Saint a Day will help your child realize the long history of people of faith. As you journey through this yearlong devotional, your children will grow in their understanding of Church history and better understand how they can love and serve God.

Genres: Religion, Faith, Nonfiction, Catholic, Spirituality, Christian

400 pages, Hardcover

Published November 23, 2021

Reviews

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, very interesting.

[Krizia Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

thank you Netgalley and Ms. Hinds for the free copy of this book. I like the general look of the book and how many saints can be found. I think more illustrations of the saints will be nice. I also like how its engaging for kids because of the not so long descriptions. I hope there are also activities in between and not just saints.

[Lellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a super religious person, but I did grow up in a Catholic family. I am interested in religions and mythologies and find this interesting from a scholarly perspective., but it is definitely made for children of the Catholic faith. The illustrations and page set ups are really lovely. I just wish there was more information about the saints. It can still be one page long, but most of the info is kind of vague. Still a great book for a young Catholic child to learn about the saints, how to worship and be a caring and giving person, and to teach Bible verses!

Thank you to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Maxwell Thornton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little, yet ideal book!

I admit that I didn't read a page a day, but when I did read I enjoyed learning about the many saints. These included many from different countries (past and present) and times, such as the Holy Roman Empire in the Late Middle Ages. This is a good book if you want to learn more about the saints in Catholicism.

If you are a Catholic or are inquiring Catholicism, I recommend this to you.

[Kristine · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author doesn't seem to be Catholic and whether intentional or not, there are many inaccuracies and subtle attempts to undermine proven miracles, visions and beliefs.
Whenever a Saint has had a vision of Our Lady or Our Lord this book says that the Saint mentioned "believed" they saw or spoke with Them. It treats all situations as if they aren't facts but fancies by these nice historical figures.

Some of the feast days aren't accurate, which could be forgiven if it actually contained Catholic content.

The book leaves out the most important details of stories if they're miraculous, like Saint Martin of Tours seeing Jesus wearing his half cloak he had given the beggar.

I do not recommend this book to anyone. Not to Catholics because it will be so full of holes in important events. Not to Protestants because it paints an inaccurate view of Saints and Catholic teachings on their lives and events in their lives.

There are lots of Saint books that have cute pictures and short stories suitable for children - don't use this one.

[Anna M (readwithanna)]

I am refraining from rating this because it's the kind of book that I find hard to rate.

This devotional covers major saints, as well as many I had never heard of before. There are also Blesseds and Servants of God. Each entry has their name, birth/death dates, location (as well as modern name), as expected. There is also a short phrase to summarize their story (ex: Saint Sebastian has "The Ultimate Sacrifice", St. Paul has "Blinding Light"), followed by a bible verse and a paragraph of their story. It also has a fact to the side and a short prayer at the bottom. Most of the Saints are on their feast days, but others are marked with an asterisk if they are not. There are small illustrations and full page ones throughout, but not all Saints have an illustration with their entry.

I wish there was a secondary Table of Contents (or index) that listed the Saints alphabetically. There is also no place that tells you what the Saint is the patron/patroness of, which I had expected.

Overall, it would be a good gift for any age, and would be a good family devotional.

[Josh Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, the book itself is just lovely. The colors, the illustrations, everything. This is a perfect coffee table book. Full disclosure: I’m not Catholic, so much of the book is new information to me. That said, here is my main takeaway (aside from the wonderful look and feel of the book as a whole). The author does a fantastic job of condensing the stories of saints (and those on track to becoming saints) into bite-sized chunks…which is particularly helpful for those of us who find their attention span reduced to, well, bite-sized chunks of time. This is a great way to introduce your kids to the often counterintuitive yet beautiful qualities of heroes of faith: poverty, sacrifice, serving others, etc. Every single one of the 365 stories offers good conversation starters. Well done, Meredith Hinds (and Isabel Muñoz). I’ve purchased a couple of these books to give as gifts to a couple of my Catholic friends.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, I thought this was really good! I liked about learning each saint or a person who is on the road to become a saint. I thought each prayer after the little biography of the saint was impactful. There were a number of saints that I have heard before and saints that I have not, such as a Saint Andrew Kim Taegon from Korea.

Verdict: I feel this is an approachable devotional for kids. While I am glad my library has a more current book on saints, it is not very practical to use this book as intended use of a devotional for you cannot keep it for a year before people get mad at you for not returning it.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok format if you are only going to provide one page of information for a saint. Dates and spiritual quotes and information about a saint once a day. Mostly organized by a date relevant to that particular saint.

One page (in my opinion) is not enough space to give enough recognition and detail about the saints. I really wanted to like this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Meredith HInds the author and the publisher Thomas Nelson: CHILDREN'S for the opportunity to review the advance review copy of A Saint a Day: 365 True Stories of Faith and Heroism in exchange for an honest review.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will certainly be buying this book for all of the children in my life. I love giving young kids a book with one saint a day, giving them one person to focus on each day and being able to learn more about that one person. I loved the descriptions and the pictures. This will certainly engage young children and teach them more about the saints who have come before us.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Leilany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book quite exciting! It is literary one saint a day and they assign the day instead of the number which I prefer (ex. Jan 7, instead of just Day 7) since it makes it easier to keep track of where you are. The information is short and to the point, with interesting info; however, I would have loved if that added info about praying to a Saint if you need help for x or y situation. Overall, this is a book I look forward to reading at the end of each day.

[Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, with love. Lovely book, love the introductions. I didn't realize it was for children when I began reading it, but as I saw how succinct the descriptions of the Saint's lives were, I looked up more information on it.

It's a terrific book to open the gateway to the lives of the Saints.

[Marcelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like this book of the Saints, but I wish it had more devotionals and less info on the Saint or a better mix of the two.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

a lovely, ecumenically minded, simply worded introduction to the Saints

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been a pleasure reading this to my 7-year old son nightly and learning about the saints. To hear him end each night with the prayer along the bottom of each page is heartening!