First a couple caveats- I like this book very, very much, but if you are Catholic, I would be surprised if you feel the same way.
Really, I guess that’s my main caveat. The only other things I would say by way of ‘warning’ would be that it can be a little slow to get into at first for a young reader. The language style is older, more formal, a bit stilted, and the setting is foreign to most modern readers, in both time, place, and worldview. The moral of the story will also be strange to those modern ears who think duty, loyalty, and obedience are uncomfortably out of date concepts.
But I think it’s a sweet and valuable read. It is based on a true story that happened some 13 centuries ago in Germany, and it is hard to find good children’s books set in that time period.
Troops of Irish missionaries from the ‘Culdee’ churches (the first churches in Ireland and other Celtic countries, predating the Roman church by several centuries) would set out to evangelize other countries. Their priests were married, and they generally went in groups of 12, setting up homes, businesses, and a church building in which to worship and working to spread the gospel to their new communities. These Cenobite settlements were not ‘cloisters’ in the sense of keeping isolated, but were intended as mutual support and encouragement in the inhabitant’s efforts at outreach. They made copies of the Bible in the local vernacular (centuries before Wycliffe), and each Culdean congregation was autonomous in rule and authority- really, this is quite a fascinating period in the history of Christendom, and far more should be known of it.
Adelina was the daughter of some of these missionaries to Thuringia (now part of Germany), and one day catches the eye of a Prince of the Thuringians, one whose pagan mother would do much harm to the Cenobites if she could. Adelina becomes the Esther of her people, and maintains her faith, her integrity, and her sweet spirited commitment to do what is right through many trials and difficulties.
I wanted to know more, more about the time period, more about the people, and more about the Culdean church when I was finished with this book.
You can get it from Vision Forum or from Kim and Perry Coghlan and family for three dollars less. They also have a flat shipping rate, so you can order several copies for the young ladies in your life who would enjoy reading about a young heroine of the faith from the distant past.