The Legend of Saint Nicholas (Incredible Lives for Young Readers (ILYR))

This book teaches a valuable lesson while at the same time proving an entertaining, imaginative story for the young reader to appreciate.

I keep trying to remind my kids that there are reasons why we celebrate certain holidays! And I want them to know that it is not all about the presents! We celebrate St Nicholas on December 6th and my boys get presents in their show from St Nicholas - there for I want them to know how this tradition started.

Didn’t connect Santa to Saint Nicholas as I’d hoped. Was a little “dark” for younger children.

I bought this book for my grandson,Nicholas as a special gift to celebrate his namesake's feast day on Dec 6th.The art work is beautifully done and the story itself is about St Nicholas's life.Towards the end it does mention the connection to Santa Claus,but it is not the focus of this Saint's life.

Our family really enjoys this book. The stories are interesting and the pictures are wonderful. There is one legend in it that we usually revise or skip because it seems confusing for our young children, but I would still give this book five stars. We love it.

I was looking for a children's book that explained who Saint Nicholas was so that I could help my kids understand where the idea of Santa Claus came from since he is such a prominent part of the season here in the States. I wanted to show them that the current traditions are based on something, even if very little is known about the man Saint Nicholas.While the illustrations are beautiful, I realized in reading the book that this wasn't the direction I wanted to go. I thought it might include a story of him putting gifts in children's shoes as I'd heard that's where the tradition of putting gifts in stockings came from. But the link to Santa Claus is limited to the very last page, and it's not very obvious.The title is accurate--this is a book featuring some legends (well-known and not) about Saint Nicholas. If you like the idea of legends, you'll probably enjoy the book. I was looking for something more based on facts.

nice book for children to tell an important Christmas story

Fantastic book! The illustrations are beautiful and the story of St. Nicholas is faithful to the Church. Does not have anything to do with tying the story into modern day "Santa Claus", leaving it up to parents to explain.

Bought this book for our 3 year old, and we think its perfect.We started looking for a book with stories of saints, as we've gone through the same few children's bible stories countless times, in different versions. Thought we'll give this book a chance, and its exactly what we are looking for.It tells a number of stories about the life of St Nicholas, including some of the famous stories of miracles involving him after his death. Each "story" ranged from 2-4 pages and is probably just a couple of lines in total, with either a 1 or 2 page spread of illustration. You could probably read the whole book in 5 minutes. But of course, if you're reading it to your child, you'll want to slow it down, explain in depth what's going on, and talk about the pictures.Another reviewer say that the sentences were too wordy, but I didnt really get that impression. I've seen worse, from certain children's book. If you're reading this to your child, I think its a good middle ground.Is the content child friendly? Well, with most bible stories, or stories of saints, its pretty common to deal with difficult topics (poverty, hunger, sickness, death). But as a Catholic parent, I don't think thats something we should shy away from. Having said that, the tone is definitely very bright and hopeful, and every story has a pretty easy, happy ending.The actual book itself was a decently large size, and the binding was well done. The printing quality was good, and I really love the pictures. They related well to the story, and make it easy to talk to your children about what's going on. I also love the Mediterranean setting, which is of course very true to the real historical St Nicholas (no elves or reindeers).Most importantly, this is a story about St Nicholas, and not the secularised concept of "Santa Clause" we get bombarded with in our culture. I think its so important that we educate our children about who the real "Saint Nick" is, that he's a real person who walked the earth, and who can now be counted among the saints in Heaven. There is a just enough of a hint of the link between St Nick, and the idea of "Santa Clause" giving presents to poor children at the very last story, but the book links this back to the feast of St Nicholas (on 5th December) instead of Christmas Eve, which is perfect.Highly recommend this, and so glad we gave this book a chance!

Beautiful and clearly explains the story of this wonderful saint - the true Santa Claus.

Great books!