St. Patrick's Day (Carolrhoda on my own books)

Author Joyce K. Kessel chronicles the life of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, who is credited with converting that country to Christianity in the 5th century, in this work of biography and history for the beginning chapter-book reader. From Patrick's youth in Roman Britain, through his

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time as a slave in Ireland, from his escape from captivity, and then the vision that led him back to Ireland as a missionary, the major outlines of the saint's life are covered, as are some of the folktales associated with him. The book closes with a brief discussion of the celebration of St. Patrick's Day on March 17th, the anniversary of St. Patrick's death...

Part of Carolrhoda Books' On My Own Holidays series, St. Patrick's Day is a book I picked up with interest, given the fact that the holiday is around the corner. I expected to find it quite informative, given my enjoyment of two other titles in this series: Memorial Day and Labor Day, both written by Geoffrey Scott. Unfortunately, there were a few problems here. First, Kessel gets some things wrong, when it comes to St. Patrick's life. Primary sources are scarce, when it comes to this topic, but I had always been under the impression that Patrick only came to Christianity at the time of his enslavement, and that the Roman Britain of his youth was by no means universally Christian, being a society of many different religions, Christianity amongst them. Here however, Kessel gives the impression that the Romans were all Christian, writing: "The Irish believed in other gods. They did not want to become Christians like the Romans." Leaving that aside, I was also disappointed to find that this had very little about the holiday of St. Patrick's Day itself, and how the celebrations associated with it - particularly the parades here in the United States - got started. I understand the need to explore St. Patrick's own life story, as the day celebrates his role in Christianizing Ireland, but given the title here I would have liked a better balance, with more than just a few pages at the end discussing the holiday itself. In the end, this isn't really one I would recommend, either as a history of the holiday, or a biography of the saint. I will look for better titles for both purposes, going forward.

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