Book to Share: Bell and the Joyful Mysteries, by Sally Read

Friends, I am going to be very Catholic and start this review out with a confession. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned... I got this copy of a new Word on Fire Votive book to review, and I was completely judgmental and thought I would hate it.

I'm actually somewhat serious. I have real remorse for how judgmental I was, and not just because I was proved to be entirely wrong. But being wrong helped me realize my own arrogance a bit sooner than I would have otherwise! 

In my defense, I've come across a lot of frustratingly mediocre Christian children's books in my time as a mother. And the most frustrating thing about that is they end up having the opposite effect from what is intended. Presumably the author hoped their work would bring children closer to God, whereas it instead left the impression that religion is cheesy and sappy. I hate this.

But let me get back to the gist of this article which is I WAS WRONG. Bell and the Joyful Mysteries, by Sally Read, is an absolute delight, and it took judgmental, pre-prejudiced me by total surprise. 

The premise of the story sounds like it could end up being cheesy. A young American girl goes to visit her aging Italian grandmother, who wants her to pray the rosary. Girl resists, but ends up learning to love the prayer. However... My mind started changing about the story by the time I had finished reading a page. Sally Read has a beautiful, old-fashioned writing style that immediately reminded me of Eleanor Estes or Edward Eager. Clearly, I was in the hands of someone who could Write. In fact, as the story progressed, Edward Eager and his delightful Half Magic stories kept coming to mind. Because Bell is not just convinced by her grandmother to love the rosary. She actually enters into the mysteries through what literature would call magic but we Catholics would call mysticism. 

And that's what sold me. Not that she has mystical experiences (plenty of sappy Christian books have that), but that the mysterious elements of the story still worked if you thought of them as magic, if you thought of the story as one placed among the ranks of classic children's fantasy. Bell has real adventures! She has real change of heart that is not just info dumped on her by a wise old woman. She has challenges to overcome. She has a funny sidekick (you can't overestimate the power of a funny sidekick). In other words, it's a good story. 

Would non-Catholic kids enjoy it? I'm not sure. It would be hard to get past the title and premise, I think. If they were persistent enough to do so, I could guarantee they would find entertainment! But Catholic kids are going to be delighted. And many of them are going to be just as surprised as I was that a book about learning the rosary could be such a rollicking ride. I believe it will inspire a more personal encounter with a prayer many of them are already saying by route. And I'm sure they'll be asking, like me, when the sequels are coming. :)

A last note: the illustrations by Doris Shermadhi are lovely (I love that Mary and Jesus have darker skin, and don't look like kitschy figurines). And the book design itself is just very well done. It's an incredibly high quality book all around. Well done, Votive!