Chime Travelers

 

The Secret of the Shamrock (Chime Travelers Book #1)
by Lisa M. Hendey
128 pages
Fiction – Children’s Series

This sweet little children’s adventure series features a faithful catholic family, whose young twins travel back in time to meet catholic saints, have grand adventures and learn theological lessons. This series also normalizes typical catholic family activities like attending mass, baptizing a baby sister, volunteering at church and having a personal relationship with their local priest. We learn that their father converted to Catholicism and their baby sister was adopted from China. Written by a catholic author, this story had a distinctly catholic feel!

In this book, Patrick is magically transported back in time when the bells of St. Mary’s Church ring. He meets St. Patrick and learns important lessons. Prior to this, he had doubts about the faith and a bad attitude about helping out at church. He mocks his more devout sister for being a “holy roller” and also makes fun of another friend who stands up for the faith. But, he also briefly thinks about becoming a priest. Towards the end of his adventure, Peter repents of his wrong behavior.

The content is appropriate for school children in grades 2 - 4 as recommended by the publisher. In this book, Peter and Katie are preparing to receive their First Reconciliation and First Communion - typical 2nd Grade activities! My 2nd Grader is an advanced reader (reading at the 3rd/4th grade level) and the language in the book was a bit simple for her. She enjoyed reading this series and learned about the catholic faith, but it didn’t stretch her literary skills. She regularly reads longer books with more complex language.

This chapter book series features large print, pictures every few pages and simpler language for young readers. As an adult, I read it easily in about 30 minutes and it kept my interest. There were discussion questions at the end of the book to help parents gain insight into their child’s mind and heart. Love that! It was explicitly catholic with theology baked into the adventure, but did not feature scientific or historical information like other time travel books.

This is Book One of a series; there are currently 5 books in the series. In Book Two, Katie travels back in time to meet St. Tekakwitha. In Book Three, Patrick travels back in time to meet St. Francis. In Book Four, Katie travels back in time to meet St. Clare. In Book Five, Katie and Peter travel back in time together to meet the Holy Family.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Children 6 - 8 years old (in my opinion). This is targeted at school children in grades 2 – 4. It would be a fun book to read next month for St. Patrick's Day!