Review:Preparing for first reconciliation-a guide for families(Veritas)

Preparing for first reconciliation:A guide for families is aimed at families who want to help prepare their children for their first reconciliation or their first confession, as it used to be called!

It is written by a primary school teacher who has specialised in religious education.

The book is colourful and dinky and gets to the point. It breaks up each section in easy to read and bright images and words. It is addressed to the parent and the child so they can both learn together. Some sections requires the child to source a photo of their baptism which is a nice opening discussion for the parent.

This book is more focussed on a reading together, saying prayers together and many questions for the parent to ask the child. It includes all the prayers and themes that a child will need before making their first reconciliation, which is useful not only for parents but handy for teachers in Catholic schools and also Educate Together schools. This might also be a useful resource for the Educate Together school as children can learn about one of the religious rites of passage that a Catholic child would make. This book would also be useful for a Catholic classroom as a catalogue of prayers and discussion points. It also uses a footprint icon to help the child think about any things they are sorry for as they prepare themselves.

I would have liked to have seen more interactivity in terms of the child being able to personalise the book and make it more into a workbook than a textbook. An area at the end to check what they knew about the first reconciliation would also be helpful when the child was revising for their First Communion. There is a cute certificate at the end that the child can fill in, frame and keep.

It is priced at 4.95 and is available from www.veritas.ie