In this post I will review the picture book One Holy Marriage: The Story of Louis and Zélie Martin.
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I was so excited when the lovely folks at TAN Books reached out to ask if I wanted to preview and review the new picture book One Holy Marriage: The Story of Louis and Zélie Martin by Katie Warner and Leah Pumfrey.
“The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”
G.K. Chesterton
You guys know picture books are my jam, my happy dance and the foundation of many a great homeschool morning basket time with my 4 sons.
In particular, I happen to have a penchant for beautifully illustrated, not-too wordy, engaging picture book biographies. Best of all, ones that teach about the saints and our Holy Faith.
About the Book
From the book:
Once upon a bridge in Alençon, France, an ordinary man met an ordinary woman, and they fell extraordinarily in love.
One Holy Marriage
This book is about the beauty of the Sacrament of Marriage as told through the lens of two amazing recently canonized (2015) saints, Louis and Zélie Martin.
Did you know, they were the first married saints ever in history to be canonized together?
This living book is a great way to introduce the idea of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony as well as learning about the lives of two saints who parented the Little Flower, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.
One Holy Marriage Book Details
- Genre: Picture Book Biography
- Author: Katie Warner
- Illustrator: Leah Pumfrey
- Publication Date: March 28, 2023
- 40 pages in length
- Measures 9 inches high by 11 inches wide
- See a PDF inside look here
My Review of One Holy Marriage
Let me tell you, this one hit the mark!
This year in our homeschool, one of our main themes is sainthood. We are studying the saints, discussing our goal of sainthood, and the different vocations and paths God may call us to on our journey. As Catholic speaker Ken Yasinski so cleverly stated, the goal is not to be canonized, but to be canonizable.
I want to encourage our children in whatever their future vocation may be, and with that in mind, we used another Katie Warner picture book, Jack Giorgio, Future Priest earlier in the year to discuss the priesthood.
This book played perfectly into our theme! It’s like I planned it, but I didn’t.
If you would like to read more about how we homeschool, you can read all about it here.
Likes
- We unanimously loved the illustrations. They are very pretty and feminine and my boys thought they were great. I think certain little girls would just adore them.
- We love the saints, of course.
- The endpapers with references and more biographical information are always a great feature for me and my fact-loving boys.
- All the scenes with sacraments being featured made for lots of good conversation about sacraments.
- Some repeating themes I loved like the marriage vows, being ordinary, and doing family life together.
- I really liked the use of handwriting to emphasize certain repeated phrases in the text.
Dislikes
- I was initially not sold on the typography (the main font) because I tend to be picky about things being readable. However, the style suits the setting of the book and the illustrations so well that I quickly got used to it.
Kid-Reviews: From the Mouths of Babes
My sons really enjoyed this book, too. Here are some of their takeaways.
“It has got really good pictures and its really nice. I like the part where St. Therese says she wants her mum to die so she can go to heaven.”
James, age 10
“This guy makes and fixes clocks, and this girl hems. I like the page where they meet. All the flowers are pretty. I liked every page. My favourite page is the clockmaking.”
Euan, age 7
“I liked the pictures, the bridge, the flowers and every page.”
Ronan, age 4
“Me love Zelie.”
Nate, age 2
My Takeaways from One Holy Marriage
- Great for learning about sacraments
- Great for modeling a holy marriage and family life
- Touches on and discusses grief and loss always with the prospect of our hope in heaven
- Gorgeously illustrated
- Children will enjoy seeing childhood scenes from a great Saint
- This book deserves a spot on our “beautiful picture books” shelf
- This would make a beautiful First Communion gift or addition to an Easter basket
Where to get it?
You can order your copy While you are there, check out the
I always recommend you shop small if you can. But for international readers, this book is available on Amazon.
Thanks for Reading my Book Review!
Before you go, please check out my free Catholic resources here. You can also see my whole collection of homeschool printables in my Etsy shop.
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