Best Saint Books For Kids (My Favorites!)

When you’re first starting out building your Catholic children’s library, it can feel very overwhelming, and quite frankly… expensive!!! My official recommendation is not to freak out- just start your home liturgical library with a good children’s bible and a Saint story treasury. Having these 2 things will take you a long way in teaching your children the faith at home. You can find all of my favorite Catholic children’s bibles here. Today we are going to dive into the best Saint books for kids.

To clarify, all the books recommended here are Saint books in general that include multiple stories of the Saints. None of these books are about 1 Saint in particular. 

That makes all of these books good to use year around, and also a great choice for celebrating All Saints’ Day! 

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Why Having A Good Saint Story Treasury Is Important

Saint feast days have a way of sneaking up on me, so while I could request some books ahead at the library or order individual Saint stories, I’m usually not organized enough to do so, and frankly unwilling to spend the money on them. If you have a Saint treasury, meaning it has lots of Saint stories in 1 book, then you can be ready to grab it at a moment’s notice to learn about the Saint of your choice!

I also absolutely love staying off of screens to teach my children about… well, almost anything. If I don’t need a screen during the lesson, that’s a “win” for me! lol. So I highly recommend having a good Saint treasury book on hand at home for your family. 

Why Saint Treasuries Are A Great Value

When you first start living the liturgical year at home and teaching your children the Saint stories, all the book recommendations out there can be really overwhelming! You can read one blog post that might recommend dozens of picture books about the one Saint alone! Furthermore, upon clicking, I often discover that the most beautiful books have been out of print and now cost nearly $100 per picture book. Am I the only one this happens to?! 

If you have the ability to buy piles of beautiful Saint picture books for your family, that is amazing, but I have been in so many places in life where that is not an option for me. Also, while some books can be found at the library, a lot of the more specialized books cannot. 

So your Saint story treasury is a really great resource that can save you tons of money not needing to buy separate picture books!

Also, the stories in a treasury are often short and sweet, making them an easy read before feast day celebrations. 

Why Pictures Are Important 

I studied Catholic art in school extensively and there is so much symbolism in Christian art in general. One of the best things about learning about the Saints is being able to identify their various images through the symbols around them or the objects they are holding. Many Saints are portrayed in a similar way again and again, and I think learning to identify these images is an important part of teaching our children about the lives of the Saints. So I’m going to rank having pictures of the Saints as very high priority in your celebrations, meaning that if your book includes pictures already, that’s one less thing you have to put together yourself. 

Are Saint Books Too Gruesome For Kids?

Saints were often martyred or endured other hardships, and those stories can sometimes feel a bit much for children. I would encourage you to know your own child. Mothers usually know best. I’ve always shared the truth about Saint stories with my kids from a preschool age, but maybe not giving too many details.

When your child is young enough that you are reading to them, you can skip a sentence or 2 or change it if needed. By the time they’re reading to themselves, I would say they’re probably ok for the way these parts of the story are usually portrayed in children’s books. 

My Favorite Saint Treasuries For Kids

This is not an all inclusive list of every single Saint treasury books I could find for kids because I don’t personally find those posts useful, but overwhelming. I also always take price into account when making recommendations, the quality of the stories, and also the quality of the illustrations. Here are my honest opinions about my favorite Saint books, and also some very popular ones that are not my favorites.

The links included in this post are affiliate links. That means I earn a small commission if you buy the book with no extra cost to you. All opinions shared are my own.

Picture Book Of Saints (St. Joseph Edition)

I am going to start with The Picture Book Of Saints. This is such a basic Saint book for kids- you can’t go wrong with this thing. It has an assortment of very well known and celebrated Saints, so if you’re trying to celebrate the liturgical year at home, you’re likely to find who you’re looking for. There is a table of contents in the front that has them arranged alphabetically, so it’s easy to quickly locate the stories. 

Each page has a full color picture of the Saint, their feast day, a small prayer, and displays what the Saint is a patron of. The illustrations utilize traditional Saint symbols, so your children will learn about identifying classic Saint art with this book. Then there is a short story of just a few paragraphs that shares many facts and interesting highlights of that person’s life. It’s well laid out and easy to use.

Also, they have done of great job of keeping this book updated with modern Saints and this book does offer some diversity of Saints from different cultures and colors. 

I also love the puffy durable cover on this, and the paper of the pages has a beautiful glossy finish. Also, it’s only $10!!! To me, all of these things make it the best starter Saint book for families, which is why I recommend it. 

Side note: Although this book is from St. Joseph’s Press and written by Fr. Lovasik, it is not just a compilation of those little St. Joseph Picture Books about that Saints that come in a series. There are a lot more Saints in the series with multiple books. See below.

St. Joseph Picture Books Gift Set

I honestly don’t know exactly how much overlap there is in this St. Joseph Picture Books Gift Set and the complication above, but this set definitely includes more Saints. The layout is different. I love how there’s one Saint on each page of these little books, and I love their size. Because there are so many small books though, it’s hard to find a specific Saint you may be looking for. Also, the books are a little hard to get in and out of the box. As a mother, a set with small books like this make me nervous to lose some. Honestly, I don’t pull this set out much, but I should utilize it more. 

Once Upon A Time Saints

I have this series and we really like them! I like how the Around The Year Once Upon A Time Saints is organized by the calendar year. The stories in this one are particularly nice. The illustrations are cute, but they are in black and white, and they aren’t your traditional Saint pictures, so you’re not likely to learn to identify Saint pictures with this book.

Can You Find Saints

Aaaaaahhhhhh! I love love love this Saint book! Can You Find Saints is one of my absolute favorites. It’s like Where’s Waldo, but with Saints. This baby is loaded with all kinds of Catholic Saints and organized well. Every page is a colorful delight. Children and adults will both love this one, and it has good information for learning about the Saints as well. HIGHLY recommend!

An Alphabet Of Saints 

This book is just too adorable! An Alphabet Of Saints is full of short stories for different Saints and it goes through the alphabet A-Z. I love to read it to the kids, especially at our All Saints’ Day tea party! I love the little old fashioned etching style pictures as well. 

Sitting Like A Saint

I unfortunately don’t own this one (yet), but it looks absolutely adorable and I’ve heard nothing but good things from Catholic mothers! Sitting Like A Saint has absolutely beautiful and colorful artwork for kids! This book includes 14 Saint stories and calming activities for kids. For a sampling of this book to see if you would like to purchase it, check out this video, which reads part of the book aloud.

Learning With Prayer Cards

Even though holy cards aren’t a “book” per say, they’re still one of my favorite resources for teaching Catholic kids about the Saints. I still have all of my Saint holy cards from when I was a kid! I love collecting holy cards because you can always just add to them as you go, and they’re great for displaying on your home altar. You can check out a basic starting pack of Saint prayer cards here.

Saint Picture Books With Beautiful Classic Art

I have several of this type of Saint book and I absolutely love seeing the beautiful timeless art from around the world! This Saints And Angels book is my favorite because it includes a lot of Saints, and I like how angels are included as well. These would be great books to have around for all ages, but especially older kids! There is one Saint story per page, and all the pages have beautiful full color actual artwork of the Saints. 

This one is really especially awesome to have for angels, so when celebrating Michaelmas for example. 

And I have been a huge fan of all of St. Wendy’s books for years, and her Sister Wendy’s Book Of Saints is no exception to this! Truly a wonderful book. I was also able to get this one through the library loan system. Score!

Not My Favorite Saints Books For Kids

I almost didn’t include these, but I see them recommended a lot, so I would share my opinions with you just like I would if we were having tea in my living room and you were asking my opinion on Saint books. Here we go. 

Book Of Saints (Loyola Kids)

I’m including this one because I see it suggested a lot. Book Of Saints is a collection of Saint that is organized by what the Saint did, such as “Saints Who Loved Children”. The book does have some very simple and small black and white pictures, but it’s definitely not a picture book or images that your children would learn Saint artwork imagery from. 

It seems written for younger children, yet I think it seems like an intimidating read for them as it has no substantial pictures and lots of words. Therefore, it’s not a book I would ever hand my children to read themselves. This was not my favorite, but I was able to get it through my public library system, so that was a plus. 

Illustrated Book Of Saints

I will start off by saying that the cover of this book is way cuter than the artwork inside. Overall, there is one Saint per page, and it does include a lot of Saints. This one I was able to get through the the library loan system, so a point for that. 

It also has biography type Saint stories, but I will add here that there is absolutely no diversity in this book- not even St. Juan Diego. I wouldn’t really recommend purchasing this one. Here’s an example of the art inside of this book. 

Stories Of The Saints

Here’s another one I’m including because I see it suggested by so many Catholic influencers.

The illustrations in Stories Of The Saints are very dark, and I don’t mean in a color way. Rather than following your typical Christian art styles, the illustrations are a lot more Pegan in style. What I mean by this is that the illustrations have more of a feeling of Greek gods than of Saints. For me, it’s too much. 

I was sad about the illustrations because the collection of Saint stories included were awesome, and I actually liked how the stories were written.

Also, you should totally check out my All Saints’ Day food labels! This is the perfect All Saints’ Day party printable as it turns everyday kid snacks into symbols of the Saints, making celebrating a breeze for mom!

More Saint Resources For Kids

You can find even more Saint resources for kids here including free printables, coloring pages, how to draws, crafts, and more!

I did not receive compensation of any kind for this post. No one gave me any books for free or asked me to post this. All of these opinions are my own, and completely unbiased. The links I provided are affiliate links, which means I do receive a small percentage of the sale if you order through me with no extra charge to you.