By George P. Matysek Jr.
Serenely peering out from stained-glass or standing atop pedestals while piously presenting the instruments of their martyrdom, the saints can often appear otherworldly in church art.
Carey Wallace’s new children’s book, “Stories of the Saints: Bold and Inspiring Tales of Adventure, Grace and Courage,” shows that holy men and women whose miraculous deeds, charitable works and battles with armies, beasts and demons she chronicles with gusto also were what Wallace calls “relentlessly human.”
“The saints are often scared,” said Wallace, a novelist based in Brooklyn, New York. “The saints often don’t know what to do. The saints are often running away from responsibility. They don’t feel like they are qualified for what they’ve been asked to do. The saints are very, very much like us.”
Jan 17, 2021 catholic news service
A child opens to an illustration of St. Joan of Arc in Stories of the Saints: Bold and Inspiring Tales of Adventure, Grace and Courage by Carey Wallace. (Credit: George P. Matysek Jr.,/Catholic Review via CNS.)
Carey Wallace s new children s book, Stories of the Saints: Bold and Inspiring Tales of Adventure, Grace and Courage, shows that holy men and women whose miraculous deeds, charitable works and battles with armies, beasts and demons she chronicles with gusto also were what Wallace calls relentlessly human.
BALTIMORE Serenely peering out from stained-glass or standing atop pedestals while piously presenting the instruments of their martyrdom, the saints can often appear otherworldly in church art.
For parents of school-aged children, it’s finally sinking in: This will be a long COVID winter. We’re already eleven months into isolation, which feels like the previous winter never really ended. We simply went from bundling up our kids before they played in the yard to slathering them with sunscreen (for the same yard) to bundling up again. And our hearts sink every time they wander back indoors. What to do
next?
In both our families, the answer is always books. Not only does an author reside in each household; in addition, Erin runs an elementary school library, and Sarah helps plan literary conferences. Plus, both of us are preliminary judges for the annual CT Book Awards: Erin in the Children and Youth category, Sarah for Fiction. We unabashedly consider writers to be essential workers.