Book Review: Saints Around the World

By Jennifer Gregory Miller ( bio - articles - email ) | Feb 07, 2025 | In The Liturgical Year

I’m finally finding some time to review a few books. First up are the saint biographies by Meg Hunter-Kilmer, illustrated by Lindsey Sanders and printed by Emmaus Road Publishing of the St. Paul Center.

First, her larger book Saints Around the World (size 8 x 10 inches, 212 pages) published in 2021, contains 100 saint biographies. And as the title implies, these are saints from all over the world, and many of the recently canonized saints.

Each saint has a two page spread, with the biography on the left side, and a small map of the world with a star showing where the saint lived. On the right side is the illustration with an explanation of the symbols used. The illustrations are captivating and really capture the important aspects of each saint. The saints look like miniatures—not cartoonish, but a bit miniaturized, or child-like, even though the qualities would be like an adult (aka beard or grey hair).

There is key information for each saint: name, country, years born and died and the feast day. For saints with names that may seem unfamiliar, there is a simplified pronunciation guide.

Meg Hunter-Kilmer summarizes each saint so well. She doesn’t write about plaster saints who always were so perfect. She understands what will capture a child’s interest and also inspire a child to imitate the saint. She doesn’t moralize, which I appreciate. She tells the story of what a saint did in their life, but also brings forward the human side with their struggles, such as the physical and mental hardships. The readers can connect with the saint’s life, and pray to them for help, but also imitate their love and devotion to Christ in their own lives.

Recently Emmaus published the “Saints Around the World for Little Ones Collection.” This version uses about 80 of the saints included in the large collection, but broken down into five different categories. There are five books, each 5 1/2 x 7 1/4 inches, with thicker pages. The format is similar to the main book, but quite abbreviated. There is a short paragraph adapted from the original, and then one line summary of why this saint is important. For example, for St. Mary MacKillop: “St. Mary teaches us to keep trusting Jesus even when life is unfair.”

The reading level is still a bit high. There is less text, but the text used is from the original book. I would suggest this for younger readers who need a shorter version, but not necessarily emerging readers. Also following the Montessori philosophy, ages 6-12 is the age when the Elementary child seeks heroes, and saints are the perfect heroes. I wouldn’t use these books for children before First Grade.

The small books are arranged in these five themes:

1. Unshakeable Saints Around the World: saints who persevered through many trials
2. Adventurous Saints Around the World: saints who took risks to serve the Lord
3. Young Saints Around the World: saints who died very young but accomplished great things in the short amount of time
4. Talented Saints Around the World: saints who used their gifts and skills to spread the message of the Gospel
5. Ordinary Saints Around the World: saints whose lives seemed ordinary but loved Jesus extraordinarily

I work in the atrium at a Catholic Montessori school in the Elementary, which is a mixed age classroom, ages 6 through 12. There are 44 children ranging grades 1 through 6. Every fall the children have a “Culture and Cuisine” event. They form groups that choose a country, learn the culture including foods. This year also included choosing a saint from that country. On the day of presentation, the children present their research and serve the foods they made. This series of books was sometimes the only resource that they could find for saints from different regions (Chile, for one) and also more recently canonized saints.

Besides that one project, the children are always wanting to learn more about the saints, and pore over the saints books regularly. This series is in constant use in the classroom and atrium work, for both beginning and seasoned readers. Yesterday someone wanted to use these books, and I had taken them home to write this review! Besides the information about the saint, the children really love the illustrations, also.

Since my students do use these books for research, I did want to mention the organization. The larger volume is arranged alphabetically and is paginated. It includes four indexes: Geographical, Feast Day, Topical, and Chronological. All these indexes make it easy for the children to find the saint for their particular interest.

My one complaint about the smaller books is that there are no page numbers, and no table of contents. The saints are still arranged alphabetically and there is a map on the inside cover that shows where each saint in the book was located. There are small illustrations of each saint, but it is difficult to recognize them readily. When looking for a particular saint because of a child’s interest or a feast day, it currently is too hard to find the saint in each volume. Unless I have looked at each book and written down which saints are included, I don’t know which volume includes which saint, so it’s a little hunt each time. I did give my feedback to Emmaus so maybe in later editions a listing for each book will be an addition.

I am very choosy about my saint books, and this Saints Around the World series definitely deserve a place of honor on our bookshelves. I’m hoping Meg Kilmer-Hunter has plans for more saint books!