Pre-Orders, Giveaway, & New Podcast Episode: Board Book Saint Biographies with Author Cassie Herrington

In today’s episode, I speak with author Cassie Herrington. You’ll hear about:

Now available for pre-order: Arthur the Clumsy Altar Server
Why pre-orders matter
How saint stories can nourish the souls of the littlest children
Celebrating liturgical feasts
How respecting children’s freedom shares God’s love
A giveaway of the Little Saint Stories board book: John Paul II
And more!

**Affiliate disclaimer: Some links may be affiliate links where I earn a little money from your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks for helping an author out! 🙂

Arthur the Clumsy Altar Server is available for Pre-Order!

Filled with relatable foibles and Arthur’s fierce desire to serve God, Arthur the Clumsy Altar Server is a great way to share faith with your kiddos! Pre-order now at https://amzn.to/3C2ao42.

*Arthur the Clumsy Altar Server* comes out September 2022

Pre-ordering books is a fantastic way to support an author or a book, as all pre-order sales help boost the book well into the future with search engine algorithms. If you’re thinking of buying this book, don’t wait, and order some as Christmas gifts while you’re at it!

Your purchase will go farther by helping others find the book now and in the future. Post-publication sells help as well, but pre-orders are SUPER POWERFUL! Thanks so much for your support, and I wish you laughs and hugs and happy reading!

Want to be interviewed?

If you would like to be interviewed on the Catholic Kidlit podcast, if you have some insight into Catholic children’s books, if you are an author/editor, you can apply at Catholic Kidlit dot com or send me a message through the contact form.

Now for the Interview with Author Cassie Herrington

Theresa Kiser: Today. We are here with Cassie Herrington, who is the producer of the Little Saint Stories board book series, which was launched with a Kickstarter campaign quite recently. So these are board books all about saints.

Cassie, thank you for coming on the show. As a fellow board book writer, I would love to hear about your creation of these books for our littlest readers.

So, can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and, and the series that you’ve launched?

Cassie Herrington: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be on with you. So yeah, like you said, I kind of recently, so in the past year and a half came out with six books and their board books, and that was really important to me, for them to be board books.

And I’ll talk about that in just a minute. I am from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I’m a youth minister full time, always trying to spread Jesus with people, whether it’s in books for little ones or talking to high schoolers. And it wasn’t until COVID that I really started to sit down and feel the Lord pulling my heart to start writing books.

And here we are. So yeah, very excited to be sharing Jesus with the littlest and cutest of the saints among us and have books that are made for their tiny little chubby hands.

Theresa Kiser: We have board books that are shredded to pieces, but they, they last as long as they can. It’s because they’re well loved.

So you’ve poured love into these books about the saints themselves. So which saints do you have in your series so far and how are they presented for babies?

And you said that there’s a–I have so many questions. You said there’s a reason that you wanted them to be board books for these little ones.

So why did you write specifically for our youngest little people?

Cassie Herrington: Great question. So the Saint set I have currently in my first set of books, cuz I did it in kind of two sets. I had St. Joseph. It was the year of St. Joseph last year when I wrote it. St. Francis of Assisi, another beloved Saint, and St. Germaine, who’s not super well known.

And then in my second set, I did: Mother Teresa, St. Theresa Lisieux, and St. John Paul II.

So those are the saints I have so far. I have some that I’m thinking about doing next, but always open to suggestions if you have any.

And then, yeah, so the reason for the board books: I always you know, I grew up being like a babysitter and a nanny and I always was around little kids.

I’m not a mom yet, but hope to be someday. And I always thought, “Man, these kids memorize these books from such a young age and wouldn’t it be great if they were memorizing things about their faith and starting to learn at a really young age.” And then I also just remember sitting in the pews as kind of an older kid thinking, “Man, like, you know, that kid’s playing with trucks and whatever,” which is great, you know, if they’re not old enough to pay attention, then sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, but how cool it be if it were toys and books that were elevating their hearts towards worship at such a young age. And so it was always something in the back of my mind that I just wish there was more of a market for Catholic toys and Catholic books, which now we kind of see blossoming, which is amazing.

And so having, or being able to be a part of that is really cool. And the board books, I kind of thought, you know, when kids are reading books in Mass, it’s not always quiet, right? Like when they’re turning the paper pages or, you know, flopping it all around. And so board books are not only easier for their fingers to turn at that age when they really are not expected to kind of still and do much with the Mass yet.

But it’s also a lot quieter. So if they’re sitting there, they can independently turn those pages and they’re not, you know, wrestling papers and maybe disrupting the family that’s sitting next to them or whatever it is.

Theresa Kiser: That is so true. And I think that memorization is kind of underrated because it really can stick with you.

I mean, we have memorized tons of fun, secular books: Yellow Copter, Cat in the Hat, all of these… But we had a, a priest who catechized my group when I was going through school and he taught us to say, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart,” he would say that, and we would respond “and do not lean on your own understanding.”

And then we’d go back and forth: “in all your ways, acknowledge Him. And He will direct your paths” and years, and years and years later, I remember that. And it’s so interesting that these words that children memorize can stay on their hearts and really shape them. And for the parents too, if there’s something worthy in the picture books that parent might be reading that over and over and over again so there’s a lot of time to think about it.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him
and He will direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6

So how are these Saint stories presented to the child? What kind of words and pictures will a parent and child encounter in these board books?

Cassie Herrington: Yeah. So I tried really hard to kind of narrow down the story of these saints. I mean, these saints led such beautiful lives and they’re saints for good reasons.

But you can’t fit everything onto 12 pages. So taking just what I thought was really the important aspects of why that Saint is unique and also the things that maybe are relatable for whether it’s the parent or maybe like the child once they start to grow up. So, you know, all of the saints led holy lives.

That’s important. That’s good to know. But you know, some things that I highlighted like St. Therese, she lost her mom growing up. Unfortunately, that’s something some of these kids will relate to or, you know, Mother Teresa, she went on mission trips. Maybe that’s something that kids have all older siblings or their parents went on mission trips and things like that.

And so I just tried to grab aspects that made these saints unique, right? Cuz none of them are cookie cutter saints. They’re all very beautifully themselves. And then put it in a way. Kids can understand, which is sometimes difficult because, you know, how do you talk about certain big topics about, you know, all these different things that happen in the world and that these saints have experienced in little people terms.

So it took a lot of, you know, using a thesaurus, a lot of working with my editor but I think that, yeah, I found a way to kind of portray these saints in a way that’s graspable for little kids. And it’s definitely a good stepping point. You know, it doesn’t provide all the information. You know, maybe later on I’ll do books for older kids that kind of add on.

And as far as the pictures, I really worked with my illustrator. It was easier with the more modern saint, right, like John Paul II, and Mother Teresa, because we have pictures of them. But for specifically St. Joseph, you know, I wanted him to look accurate, right. Like ethnically accurate and just try to like portray them in a way that wasn’t stoic and didn’t look like a Saint that existed a thousand years ago.

Or for some of ’em, even only a couple hundred years ago, but someone who looked just like these kids and yeah, it was just really like reachable and graspable for ’em.

That’s great.

Theresa Kiser: It’s, it’s interesting. I mean, even with, with St. John Paul II, that’s up to less than less than 20 years ago. So it’s really recent. I mean, I’m not even, I’m sure it’s even more recent than that.

But I will say about board books. It’s interesting that you’re talking about these things that children can relate to, especially with St. Therese. I mean, St. Therese lost her mom when she was four, generally board books are seen as written for zero to three year olds. The fact is, especially in families, when you have a large number of children and when you have the mass bag, those children will be seeing those books for many years.

And with such a short amount of time– number of pages and words–you have a chance to kind of strike the heart of that child in multiple different ways. So I really like that approach that you’ve taken. Can you give us insight into one of the themes or messages? That might be one of the takeaways from one of your books?

Cassie Herrington: Yeah. Each of the saints has a little theme or goal for the reader of how to grow in their relationship with God.

And so one of my favorites, it was actually the first book that I wrote is about Saint Germaine and she’s now super popular, but she’s known for trusting the Lord with everything that she had.

And so definitely throughout the story, you kind of see how Germaine left her sheep an awful lot for being a shepherd, but she trusted that God would keep the wolves away and sure enough, He did. And so she went and she left for good reason. She left to go to Mass every day.

So at the end of that book it kind of teaches, you know, if we trust in God, then he will provide. And so that’s probably one of my favorites is learning to trust like Germaine.

Theresa Kiser: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”

Cassie Herrington: Yeah, there you go.

Theresa Kiser: I love that that came back around.

So let’s dive into to one of these stories specifically, let’s talk about John Paul a second, since he is so, so recent and such a beautiful example for us. So what do you have to share about him in your Little Saint story?

Cassie Herrington: Yeah, so St. John Paul II is by far my favorite saint. And so it was really hard to fit all of the things that I loved into just 12 pages.

So a couple of my favorite things is I was able to highlight his love for skiing and hiking. And there’s a little picture of him skiing down a snowy mountain, which I think is something that, I mean, I’m from Michigan, I’m from the north. The snow is something that, you know, is definitely relatable.

I talked about him acting in his own plays and doing theater and things like that. And so just showing super multidimensional pieces to his character and who he was. He wasn’t just someone who sat in a church and prayed all day. That’s something that I really appreciate about St. John Paul II.

And he loved the youth. Like he loved kids and young people and so it’s very fitting, right, that one of my first books would be about him. And so just being able to share that with the kids, you know, like this saint loves you in such a special way. And so, yeah, that was really cool.

There’s so many pictures that we see of St. John Paul II holding babies and little ones. And so being able to incorporate an image like that into the book so that maybe the kids can be like, wow, that looks like me. You know, that looks like St. John Paul II is holding me. So that would be like, my dream is to find a little girl who looks like the one in the book and, you know, see that connection made.

Theresa Kiser: When you were putting these books together and presenting them in your youth ministry, do you have any tips for parents on how to present the books to their children or to catechesis classes if they’re leading them?

Cassie Herrington: Oh yeah. That’s a great question. Hmm. I mean, I would say the easiest answer is start young, right?

Like start when they definitely don’t even understand what you are reading to them. I would say that’s probably the easiest answer, but for those who might have kind of older kids, Honestly, I think the best way is to let them explore them on their own at first.

Maybe this is just my experience, but sometimes kids reading a new book is not what they want. If they just wanna hear about the Little Blue Tractor, then that’s all they wanna hear. Right. Or maybe, you know, it’s another one of their favorite books, you know, they’re not willing to go to a different one, but just setting them out for them to look and for them to get familiar and have curiosity kind of grow in their heart on their own is really something that I feel like might break into some of those kids who, you know, have the same three books that they love to read over and over again.

Theresa Kiser: Yeah, I like that too because it’s making it available. It’s not forcing. Force feeding the faith is not really great. That’s not really the way to share it because God presents his love to us for us to accept or reject freely. And so he respects that freedom.

And when we respect the freedom of our children, that’s how we can model God’s love. And he also though shows the beauty of what he has to offer of the love that he is.

And we can provide our children with resources that share that beauty. That’s just the most beautiful way to attract a soul is through beauty. I like your approach of just respecting what interests the children and making it available to them to explore on their timeline. I think that’s beautiful.

Cassie Herrington: Yeah. And sometimes even making it like a celebration! I make really big deals out of random holidays or random celebrations. So saint parties are one of my favorite things, you know, like I’ll bake a cake for whatever Saint it is that we’re celebrating that day.

And so, you know, if you have catechesis on October 1st, well, let’s do a Saint Therese party. Let’s do, you know, a craft that has to do with roses or little flowers and let’s read her book because it’s the day that we celebrate her. And make it almost like a birthday party for the saints.

And that’s a fun way to incorporate kids and get them excited and really interested in different aspects of the Catholic faith is, you know, just make it exciting, make it like a birthday party, a Feast day party.

Theresa Kiser: And that’s true. We have a lot of Feasts to celebrate, so let’s take advantage! Let’s enjoy it!

That’s great. So you say you have more books in the, in the works potentially?

Cassie Herrington: Yeah. Yep. Haven’t quite decided which ones are coming next, but there definitely are some that are coming up.

Theresa Kiser: And where can people find out more about the books, the Little Saint Stories and what you might have coming down the pipeline?

Cassie Herrington: Yeah. So the best way to find the books is going to be littlesaintstories.com and then the best way to follow along with what might be coming up or some other projects that I have going on would be on Instagram @littleSaintstories.

So pretty simple, just Little Saint Stories anywhere should be able to find me.

Theresa Kiser: Cassie has generously offered to share a copy of the St. John Paul II board book with a listener. We are going to be hosting a giveaway. So if you can look in the show notes, if you’re interested in winning one of these board books from her collection then check that out and share that around so we can get the word out.

a Rafflecopter giveaway https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js

Is there any other message that you wanna leave with our listeners today?

Cassie Herrington: Yeah, you know, I recently heard a saying called, “I’ll see you in the Eucharist.” And so it’s a way of like saying goodbye and saying like, I might never see these listeners face to face, but as a universal church, when we come together in the Eucharist, in our individual churches or in our homes, like, I’ll see you in the Eucharist.

And I like to think, you know, we see all of these saints that we read about in the Eucharist too. So what I just wanna say to all the listeners is I’ll see you in the Eucharist.

Theresa Kiser: Thank you so much, Cassie. This is beautiful. Well, I’ll see you in the Eucharist and thank you so much for being on the show.

Cassie Harrington: Yeah. Thanks so much for having me.

Theresa Kiser: This has been Theresa Kiser with the Catholic Kidlit Podcast.

The best way to support the Catholic kidlit creator you heard from today is to buy their books, leave reviews, and spread the word on social media and in person.

If you want to write meaningful children’s books with a Catholic heart, check out the Catholic Kidlit Writers Club at CatholicKidlit.com.

Together we can create and discover books to nurture children’s souls.

Thanks so much for tuning in, and see you next time!

Which saint do you want to share with your little ones?

Let me know in the comments!

About Theresa Kiser

I’m Theresa Kiser, speaker and award-winning children’s book author of the picture books Arthur the Clumsy Altar Server (Our Sunday Visitor, Coming 2022), Seven Gifts of Baptism (Holy Heroes, Coming 2022), and Liturgical Colors (Holy Heroes, 2019), as well as the fantasy adventure series The Manakor Chronicles. On a rare moment when I’m not writing or changing diapers, I might indulge in fruity teas, dark chocolate, and a good book.