July-August 2022: New Resources For Children

New Resources For Children

Our Lord’s Prayer
A Prayer Guide for Children
Elizabeth Mills
Veritas Publications, 2021
ISBN 9781800970090
pp. 32 • €4.99/stg£4.50

The disciples who lived daily with Jesus and whom we might therefore imagine needed little advice on prayer, nonetheless, found themselves asking Jesus to teach them how to pray. They had been praying with their Jewish community throughout their lives as grown men and yet in Jesus’ presence they found themselves to be children once more when it came to understanding what it means to pray. By evoking this humble request and stimulating their thirst for God the Lord’s work was bearing early fruit and vindicated his choice of the twelve. The prayer that Jesus then taught his disciples provides the basis for Elizabeth Mills tender presentation of the prayer for children and leads them to consider what God is saying through each line of the prayer and how that applies to our daily lives. The beauty of this little prayer guide for little ones is that we will never be too old to benefit from its message of love and reassurance.

Reviewer: Paul Clayton-Lea

Starchaser
Jacintha Mullins
Veritas Publications, 2021
ISBN 9781800970047
pp. 156 • €12.99/stg£11.70

This beautifully illustrated and sensitively presented publication emerged from a primary school for the Deaf in Limerick where the author and the school community suffered the loss of young members of the school body. In the aftermath of such tragedies children often hide their sadness and confusion in case they cause further pain to adults they love who are suffering more obviously. This gentle aid to comfort children and young people who have lost a loved one provides a visual and child friendly way of explaining what has happened. Initially composed by the author as an in-house publication and then revisited and revised over a seven-year period this special resource has now thankfully become available to the wider public. It is a non-intrusive yet powerful tool with which to help mend young grief. Part of the royalty proceeds go to the Children’s Grief Centre in Limerick.

Reviewer: Paul Clayton-Lea