Catholic Book Review: My First Prayers for Christmas

My First Prayers for Christmas by Maite Roche is a beautiful board book fillled with heartwarming Christmas prayers for children. The illustrations are colorful and inspiring. The book was originally publishd in French and was translated by Carie Akoun

There are seven simple prayers in this book which  all children can enjoy. They are short enough to hold the attention of infants and toddlers for a combination of bedtime prayers and a bedtime story, yet hold the attention of older readers who are reading and internalizing the sweet prayers. The language in the prayers offer concrete words, which allow the reader to visualize the concepts in the prayers. 

I love how each prayer begins with "In the name of the Father, and of the Son..." and ends with "Amen", just as all our prayers do in the Catholic faith. This consistancy reinforces what the children are learning about prayer in their religious classes and at church.

"Soon it will be Christmas Day." The prayer book starts out from the perspective of anxious children awaiting the birth of our Savior. "With the angels I sing your wonders." The next prayer joins the angels on this most holy night.  Each prayer through the book follows along in succession the events of the Christmas Miracle. As we follow along the journey of Christmas, we pray along with prayers of joy, wonder, praise  and thanksgiving.

This book was a fun book to read with the lively illustrations jumping off the page. With each turn of the page, there was colorful words and pictuers which shared the joy of the prayers. As I read this to young children, they, too were enticed by the language and colors used in the book. They reached out and wanted to touch the angels or the baby Jesus. This book is sure to be a great start to a lifetime of prayer.

I highly recommend this book for a child's first collection of Christmas prayers. 

I wrote this review of My First Prayers for Christmas for the free Catholic book review program, created by Aquinas and More Catholic Goods. Aquinas and More is the largest on-line Catholic bookstore. I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.