In ancient Rome there lived a gentle and humble man named Valentine. He was a physician, but he was also a Christian priest whose life and freedom were in constant danger in a city of people who believed in so many gods, not just one. So Valentine tended to his patients in the daytime, but he prayed for them only at night. One day a jailer from the emperor's prison appeared at Valentine's door with his small child, a girl who was blind. Knowing the difficulty of curing blindness, Valentine vowed to do his best, and over the weeks of treatment and prayer the three became fast friends. But even his friendship with the jailer could not save Valentine when the Roman soldier came to imprison him. Here, accompanied by Robert Shabuda's dramatic mosaics evoking the time period in which the story takes place, is the story of a man whose goodness and faith brought about a miracle, and whose name lives on today in one of our most celebrated holidays.
I read this one aloud today. It wasn't the first time but apparently is the first time I've tracked it in Goodreads. Today is Valentine's Day of the year 2020. While I read my newborn (3m) slumbers nearby, my Kinder (5) and Toddler (2.5) snuggle up to me on the loveseat and the girls (10 and 8) sit at the counter making sibling valentine day cards. The mosaic art of this one is what I enjoy the most. In reading this, I loved how my oldest daughter was able to make the connections to Roman history and the persecution of Christians after the risen Christ. I do not find this to be an amazing book but I wouldn't hesitate to read it to them again.
We originally added this book to our shelves because of the recommendation from Memoria Press Second Grade as a read-aloud. We own a paperback copy.
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14 February, 2013:
Reviewed