August 10, 2018 — If Dr. Seuss wrote the biography of St. Ignatius of Loyola, it would look like “Audacious Ignatius,” a new children’s book created by two longtime Jesuit educators. The book points toward the depth of Ignatian spirituality with playful rhymes and colorful illustrations.
The creators of “Audacious Ignatius” are a brother-sister team: author Paul Mitchell, who taught at Chicago Jesuit Academy, and illustrator Katie Mitchell Broussard, who taught at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago.
It can be pre-ordered here and will ship in early December, just in time for Christmas.
“We believe that books for young people do not have to compromise on depth in order to be understandable,” said Paul Mitchell. “We created the kind of book that we want for our own children: deep, clever, clear, and shot through with the joy of the Gospel. I first wrote the book as an engaging way to onboard faculty unfamiliar with Ignatius at my old school, and then distilled the story until it was comprehensible to young people. The effect of this was that the book points everywhere to the depth and grace of the Spiritual Exercises.”
“This is a book for children, and also a book that really helps me,” said Katie Mitchell Broussard. “If you have kids, you’ve likely had the experience of reading a book so many times that the words get stuck in your head. I love it when that happens with this book because the words are so joyful and so prayerful.”
The book is intended for ages 5 and up, and Paul Mitchell hopes it will inspire young people to encounter God in the Spiritual Exercises later in life.
The brother-sister team is already planning their next book in which Ignatius narrates the Examen prayer.
To order, “Audacious Ignatius” click here.