Book Review: My First Prayers With Mary

My First Prayers with Maryis another lovely board book by Maite Roche.  It is part of a series of board books published by Magnificat and Ignatius press.  This particular book seeks to introduce little ones to Marian devotion.

The book starts off with the Hail Mary and an accompanying illustration of a family with children praying before an image of the annunciation.   I particularly like that this book uses the traditional form of the Hail Mary complete with thee, thou and thy as opposed to the more modern version that uses you and your instead.  There are six more prayers contained in this book.  One uses a line from the Magnificat, another invokes the Holy Family, and there's even a bedtime prayer.  All of the prayers contained in this little book are sweet.

As with other books by Maite Roche, the illustrations are beautiful.  One thing I've come to notice as I've acquired more and more books written and illustrated by Maite Roche is you are likely to see the same images or variations of them pop up in different books.  This book has a few illustrations that I haven't seen before.  Most of the pictures are of our Blessed Mother holding or playing with a baby or toddler Jesus.

Since this is a board book, it's perfect for babies through children around three to four years old.  The pages are sturdy and appear as though they will be able to withstand typical toddler use.

Overall I think this book is nicely done.  The prayers are age appropriate and short enough that little ones will easily pick them up after multiple repetitions.  If you're looking for a book to introduce a small child to our Blessed Mother I think you'll be pleased with this one.