If you only look at the cover of Look and Learn: Words for Catholic Kids by Casey Pawelek, you will probably think this is a book aimed at preschoolers. After all, it is small in size and features bright, colorful pictures. Indeed, preschoolers will definitely enjoy this visual and verbal exploration of Catholic people and items, but so will older children and adults.

Each page covers a certain topic, such as “Around the Church”; “In the Church”; “On the Altar”; “Colors of the Liturgy”; “Confession”; “Our Lady”; and “The Bible.” There is also a page that teaches how to pray the Rosary.

On each page is a bright illustration with words related to that topic. For example, the page on “People of the Church” features images and titles of a pope, cardinal, bishop, priest, deacon, and nun along with a mirror to represent the laity. Other words on the page are mitre, ferula, biretta, mozetta, zucchetto, crosier, cassock, chasuble, alb, stole, veil, and habit. I certainly didn’t know the names of all those items before looking at this book! There is much for adults as well as children to learn in these pages.

The only downside to this book is that there are no definitions, only the words and images. While that works great for pages like the “People of the Church”, it doesn’t work as well for “Fruits of the Spirit” or “Virtues and Vices”. Those pages can, however, serve as a jumping off point to start learning more about the abstract concepts.

Casey Pawelek has done a great job pulling together words and images that reflect key aspects of the Catholic faith. Her illustrations are simple and charming. Look and Learn: Words for Catholic Kids is a book that can help everyone in a family learn about the names of Catholic people, objects, and ideas, while also fostering conversation about the faith.

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