SAINTS AND ANGELS by Claire Llewellyn is a charming and beautiful designed
children’s book about such saints as Saint John the Baptist, Saint Francis of Assisi,
the four evangelists, Saints Agnes and Cecilia, and a small smattering of angels and
archangels, including Lucifer. There are twenty-nine saints in the book, each of whom
receives a simplified biography and at least one, sometimes two, reproductions of
paintings by such artists as Fra Angelico, Perugino, Carlo Crivelli, Joachim Patinier,
Tiepolo, and Rubens. It must have been great fun choosing which artists to use in
these full color illustrations. The artists range from Italian to Spanish to Flemish to
French ( for Joan of Arc and Saint Bernadette of Lourdes). Each saint is also listed
by his or her dates, feast day, and groups for whom he or she is a patron saint. There
is a glossary of terms at the end and a list of “notable people.”
Saints are said to be “Christian”, but are not specifically seen as Catholic or
Protestant. So the book has a wide possible use in Catholic and Protestant churches,
Sunday schools, and Quaker First Day schools. There is an attempt at soft-pedalling
the more grotesque of the saints’ ordeals, although Saint Stephen is pictured in the
painting by Il Francia as bleeding from the crown of his head. Saint Christopher is
allowed to remain in the pantheon of saints, though elsewhere he has been demoted.
Oddly, for a children’s book, Saint Francis is not described as preaching to the birds,
and his illustration doesn’t show him doing this, an activity which would please
most children. On the whole, this is a book which would appeal both to adults
and to children, since it offers a short course in art history along with the interest
of learning about striking figures in Christian history and theology. -- Stephanie Rauschenbusch 9/2011 ( )