Book Review: Two fine books for children

Many parents encourage their children to read and want to see their youngsters grow in their Catholic faith. Two very fine books that will help parents achieve both these goals are: “Mother Teresa of Calcutta” by Francine Bay and Emmanuel Beaudesson and “Mother Teresa: The Smile of Calcutta” by Charlotte Grossetete and Catherine Chion.

“Mother Teresa: The Smile of Calcutta” would be a nice book for very young readers, reading on their own, or parents could read this book to their children. The illustrations by Catherine Chion are somewhat simplistic and would be very easy for even preschoolers to take in. The story line, written by Charlotte Grossetete, is relatively straightforward. It begins with the young Gonxha, later Mother Teresa, arriving in Dublin, Ireland, from her homeland in Albania to begin life with the Sisters of Loreto. Her dream is to become a missionary, and she is soon sent to Calcutta, India.

Sister Teresa asks permission of the bishop of Calcutta to begin working among the poor. Her request is granted, and she lays aside the black and white habit she had worn for so many years and dons “a white sari with a blue border,” dressed like the poorest Indian women of Calcutta.

The book talks about her “great courage,” how she was at first “all alone.” Eventually, she was joined by young women who wanted to share her life.

The illustrations help move the story along. There is a full-page drawing of Mother Teresa lifting a dying woman from the street, a double half-page showing the sisters at prayer, and another double half-page showing sisters working in the home for the dying.

“The Smile of Calcutta” also talks about Mother Teresa’s “great sorrow,” the dark night of the soul in which she suffered for years. Grossetete writes about how she also recruited “suffering cooperators” and how she eventually won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The storyline is not overburdened with too many details, and so it would be very easy for very young children to follow.

While “The Smile of Calcutta” is billed as a book for children age 5 and up, “Mother Teresa of Calcutta is recommended as a book for age 9 and up.

“Mother Teresa of Calcutta” is beautifully illustrated by Emmanuel Beaudesson, and the artwork is much more detailed than “The Smile of Calcutta.” The drawings offer a slightly older audience more about life in Calcutta.

Mother Teresa is shown “drawing letters on the ground” to teach street children to read. Her face is seen as lined, even when she is smiling slightly as she comforts a man in the home for the dying.

The story line by France Bay also offers more detail.

She writes about how some people in Calcutta thought she was “going to take our children away to make them Christians!” A dying woman was “lying in the street, with rats starting to sniff around her.” Mother picks up a “child abandoned in the street. It had just been attacked by a dog.”

Bay and Beaudesson beautifully present the growth of the Missionaries of Charity, the receipt of the Nobel Prize, and Mother Teresa’s canonization in 2016.

This book also includes a timeline of her life and a prayer to Saint Teresa of Calcutta, both nice artistic touches.

Both books by Ignatius Press would make an excellent birthday or Christmas gift, and would be a fine addition to a school or home library.

J.E. Helm is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.