Book Review: Bambinelli Sunday

Ok, before you look at your calendar and start scratching you head wondering why I'm writing a book review for a Christmas book in July, hear me out.  My eldest daughter has been playing Christmas music on her flute for the past three weeks and my middle daughter who also happens to be in the Christmas spirit has been singing Christmas carols.  Sometimes you just have to go with it.  This is one of those times.

The other day an advance copy of Bambinelli Sunday, Amy Welborn's new children's book, showed up in my mailbox.  We have other children's books written by her that I really like so I wasn't about to wait for a more seasonally appropriate time to read this book.  As the sounds of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing wafted through my house I paged through Bambinelli Sunday A Christmas Blessing and momentarily forgot that it was in the 80s outside.

Bambinelli Sunday is a sweet story of a little boy named Alessandro who is staying with his grandparents who have a shop on the Via San Gregorio Armeno in Naples where it is Christmas all the time.  As the story unfolds children learn not only about the lovely Italian Catholic tradition of Bambinelli Sunday (Gaudete Sunday) where the Holy Father blesses the children and baby Jesus figurines they bring to the Sunday Angelus, but also they learn about honesty, compassion and love through Alessandro's experiences.

The story is geared to children in the 7-10 year old age range, but I think this book would even appeal to slightly younger children, as well.  After reading through the book I decided that this book would be a perfect for my kindergarten religious education class.

The illustrations in this book are quite lovely.  They're water color paintings which is something that seems to capture the attention of my toddler.  My almost eight year old thought the illustrations were really nice and she liked the bright colors.

Bambinelli Sunday would be a sweet book to share with young children during Advent.  In our house we have several Advent and Christmas themed books that we read during Advent to help prepare our hearts and minds for the Christmas season.  This book will be a nice addition to our Advent picture books.

I was provided with a review copy of Bambinelli Sunday by the publisher, Franciscan Media, in exchange for my honest review.  You can preorder this lovely hardcover book or take a peek inside at Amazon.