Ready-To-Go Game Shows (St. Mary's Press)

Summer is coming to an end again, and that means that Catholic Religious Education is about to start again...in less than a week in fact. I've been a catechist for five years, and I have taught from 3rd Grade to 7th Grade. Each of them have their challenges, but they also have their rewards as well. Even teaching the same grade in consecutive years, I've learned that no two classes are alike. For that reason, I am always trying to find ways to improve my lessons. I am not that creative, but my wonderful co-teacher (my lovely wife), has enough creativity for three people. I, instead, turn to books for ideas. Today, I would like to introduce you to a series of books called Ready-To-Go Game Shows.

There are three volumes in the Ready-To-Go Game Show series - Essential Catholic Beliefs, Bible, and Catholic Teachings and Practices. Each volumes is spiral-bound and is 125 to 200+ pages long. The games are geared toward the teen crowd, but they provide enough games and material that you can play them with children a little younger, like 8 to 9 years old. Each book is divided into the specific game show with multiple options for each one. Some examples of the game shows are as follows:

1. Who Wants to be a Catholic Millionaire
2. Faithful Feud (Family Feud)
3. Catholic Jeopardy
4. Holy, Holy, Holy Squares (Hollywood Squares)
5. The Church is Right (The Price is Right)
6. The Real Fortune (Wheel of Fortune)
7. Catholic Pictionary
8. 10,000 Shekel Pyramid ($10,000 Pyramid)
9. Holy Pursuit (Trivial Pursuit)

I was intrigued with how you could play The Price is Right with the Catholic Church, so I immediately went to this section. Apparently, you ask the children number related questions, like "How many books are in the Bible?" or "What year did Christianity become a universal religion?" I'm sure you can also think of some others on your own. The child who gets closest to the answer then moves on to the next round where they are given 60 seconds to put the parts of the Mass in order or Feast Days and Holy Days of Obligation in order. There is no final round, but there are enough questions in the first two rounds that it should give every child a chance to participate, even if you have to have students team up.

The books are a little pricey at about $22 each, but when you think about the amount of games in each book and the permissions granted to reproduce the pages in these books, they easily pay for themselves after one year's use...if not sooner. It does take a bit of effort to prepare to play each of these games, but the amount of money required to play these games is zero to very minimal depending on how nicely you want the games to look. I highly recommend these books and think that they should be in every religious education program. Be sure to check out other titles from the Ready-To-Go series that include skits, because not every kid is going to love game shows.

These books were provided to me for free by St. Mary's Press in exchange for honest reviews.

Encyclopedia of Saints (Our Sunday Visitor)

I'm a sucker for a good reference book. If you recall, I once had ambitions to read through the entire encyclopedia. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), this never happened. With the advent of Wikipedia and religious websites like New Advent and OrthodoxWiki, hardcover encyclopedias are becoming a thing of the past. Luckily, there are still publishers like Our Sunday Visitor who are in the business of printing these hardcover texts!

Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints is the second edition of this massive tome. The first edition was published in 1998, so it was overdue for another edition, especially since Pope John Paul II canonized many saints during his reign as pope. The editors for this book are Matthew and Margaret Bunson. You might recognize these names as they were also the editors for the Encyclopedia of U.S. Catholic History. The book's tagline says, "From Aaron to Zygmunt and 10,000 in between - her are the 'holy ones' of the Church!" This tagline made me immediately turn to the end to read about St. Zygmunt. He was a "Ukrainian priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph." He was beatified by Pope John Paul II and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI with his feast day on January 1st. How blessed for him to share a feast day with Mary, Mother of God.

Disclaimer: I did not read all 1,000+ pages of this encyclopedia. I read up on my favorite saints, did a lot of browsing/letting the book fall open and reading about a random saint. As this is a reference book, there is no right or wrong way to read it. I will tell you about some of my observations, though. Most saints received a few lines in the book. Some received a few paragraphs. Fewer received full pages. Those who received full pages would be considered "superstar" saints. As an example, Saint Pope John Paul II received slightly more than a full page. Early saints like St. Joseph or St. Mark the Evangelist received two paragraphs. I understand that space in this issue is at a premium; that more is known about recent saints than early saints; and that people tend to gravitate to the "superstar" saints. However, it would have been nice to see important saints get more words than they did or mentioned at all. For example, St. Augustine of Hippo received just over two pages of material. This was equal to the total space (pictures excluded) of the three Cappadocian Fathers (Sts. Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and Gregory of Nyssa).

Overall, this was a solid work. I was pleased that included both Saints and Blesseds in it. I also found the twelve (yes twelve) appendices extremely helpful. Just a few of the appendices are a glossary, list of U.S. martyrs, list of patron saints, and a list of Doctors of the Church. There was also a helpful introduction/history on the process of canonization. Was this book perfect? No, but it never will be. For starters, there will always be people, like myself, nitpicking entries and saying that they wish St. X had received more information and St. Y had received less information. However, if there was as much information printed as available, we'd need a 26 volume Encyclopedia of Saints! Also, there are new saints added every year. This book did include two of our newest saints, Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, but we could have new Saints and Blesseds next year that would then be missing from this book. You must do what I did, though, and appreciate the book for what it is. This is a well-researched, jam-packed tome for learning more about the saints in general and specific saints. Use this as a starting point for learning the basics about a particular saint, then dive deeper in your studies with primary sources and works written by them or about them to learn even more. This is a must-have book for every religion teacher, homeschooling mom, or lover of the saints!

This book was provided to me for free by Our Sunday Visitor in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes!

Saint Mary's Press: The Catholic Children's Bible Activity Book

It feels like forever since I've reviewed a children's book. I hit a backlog of adult books that I had to start posting those on Saturday. I hope that won't be the norm, but progress had to be made in my review stack. Two months ago, I reviewed the ONLY fully Catholic Children's Bible (available from St. Mary's Press). You can read the review here. Today, I am reviewing the Activity Book that complements it.

The Catholic Children's Bible Activity Book is a 100-page, spiral-bound book of activities to enrich your children's understanding of what they just read in The Catholic Children's Bible. When you look through the Bible, you notice that there are "featured stories," which the publisher believes are vital for your children to know their faith. These featured stories serve as the backbone for the Activity Book.

With each featured story, there are two activities - Level 1 and Level 2. Level 1 is of course the easier activity, and Level 2 requires a bit more critical thinking. One could easily give the younger kids the Level 1 activity and save the Level 2 activity for the older kids, but in doing so, you miss two opportunities. 1. The younger kids could be challenged to think harder on their faith and might surprise you with the results. 2. The older kids might enjoy the refresher of an easier activity or just simply enjoy the particular activity. You know your children better than I do, so you know what your children will and will not enjoy.

There are many things I love about this book. For starters, the types of activities are a great variety. You will open this book and find word searches and crosswords, but you won't find forty of them. You will find crafts, mazes, encoded messages, etc. Now, the price might scare some of you away, because you are thinking that's an expensive workbook for my child. However, "ALL materials included in the activity booklet are reproducible." This feature and the spiral-bound design give you a book that's easy to Xerox and makes the perfect addition to your religious education or homeschool setting. So grab your Catholic Children's Bible and this 5-star Activity Book and teach your children the beauty of Scripture.

If you found this review helpful, please click the link and hit Yes.