Book Review: Jorge from Argentina

Earlier this week a lovely picture chapter book about Pope Francis, Jorge from Argentina: The Story of Pope Francis for Children, showed up at my house.  As soon as I saw it, I had to take a peek inside.  It didn't take very long for me to decide that I needed to read this book.  Yes, that's right, I didn't think "Wow, the girls are really going to enjoy this book!  I've got to show it to them!"  No, my thoughts immediately went to "Ooh!  I need to read this!"  Nothing wrong with reading a children's book here and there for yourself.  And I'll be sharing the book with the girls, no worries about that!

After reading through this lovely biography of Pope Francis I had a few thoughts regarding possible uses for the book.  The first one is obvious, give it to an elementary aged child to read on his or her own.  The book is perfect for independent reading for 2nd-4th grade students.  But then I started to think about the younger set.  The story is engaging and I felt it was written in a style that would work wonderfully as a read aloud.  The chapters are short and can be read in a few minutes.  I think this book could be used in a class setting as a read aloud to help children get to know about Pope Francis.  I read a few stories to my kindergarten class that are told over the course of about five weeks and the kids pretty much hang on every word.  I could absolutely see them doing the same with this Pope Francis biography.

The illustrations for this book are just beautiful.  They're filled with nice vibrant colors and I think they really make the story come alive.  Each chapter has one of these rich illustrations.

The biography takes the reader from the marriage of Pope Francis's parents up to World Youth Day 2013.  They get to journey through time and see how a regular boy named Jorge came to be Pope.  And I think young readers will come to develop a fondness for our new Holy Father after they learn more about him.

This paper back book is available in both English and Spanish.  I was provided with review copies of this title by the publisher, Pauline Kids, in exchange for my honest review.  You can order a copy of this book or take a peek inside by visiting Pauline Books and Media.