We just bought this book for our kids for Christmas this year. Here’s what the editors at Whipper Snapper Books have to say about it.

“I have wondered so often why there aren’t more storybooks published for Catholic children. Well, here’s a wonderful book to change that. Nabisso’s Catholic tale is full of beauty, faith and imagination.

It has a fairy tale beginning (“Once upon a time”) and many features of a fairy tale, including a king and queen, a wedding, and characters – like a snotty baker and a beggar woman – who could have walked right out of Grimm’s. Just as in fairy tales, something is wrong in the kingdom and threatens to spoil the royal wedding. But here the problem isn’t an ogre or old witch – it’s that the people have grown cold in the practice of their faith. Instead of a fairy appearing to set things right with magic, there is a miracle.

Let me tell you, it’s not just any miracle: it’s a delightful one!! That sense of delight fills Nabisso’s writing and Szegedi’s illustrations, which are elegant, funny and loving. This book takes on some tough issues: the baker is not only selfish but tries to humiliate the old woman who begs for a crust of bread and who offers to dedicate her evening mass to him in exchange. The shop is too prosperous, the patrons are too rich, the pastries are too extravagant in the absence of any sign of charity. Kids will love the miracle that sets this all right because it’s fitting and funny and good and redemptive. This one is a keeper.
Gorgeous illustrations. Josephine Nobisso, author; Katalin Szegedi, illustrator; 34 pages”