Using Literature to Cultivate Our Children’s Faith

Taryn DeLong reviews Dr. LuElla D’Amico’s new book, Wondrous Reading: Encountering the Catholic Faith in Children’s Literature.

Wondrous Reading: Encountering the Catholic Faith in Children’s Literature 

By Dr. LuElla D’Amico 

Published by Cascade Books

My daughters love books. It’s only natural; my husband and I are also big readers. Nurturing their love of books is one of our priorities as parents. Fortunately, it’s aligned well with our top priority: helping them to grow in virtue and become saints.

Reading as Religious Practice

In fact, Dr. LuElla D’Amico, an associate professor of American literature at the University of the Incarnate Word, affirms:

Adding imaginative reading as part of a Catholic child’s religious practice provides room for spiritual and moral conversations that can lead readers of all ages, children and adults alike, to a more robust religious life, communally and independently.

This idea is the thesis of her new book, Wondrous Reading: Encountering the Catholic Faith in Children’s Literature: that imaginative reading, especially with a parent, can be a faith practice for a child or adolescent. She writes:

Children’s literature is one way we have to cultivate children’s wonder, or natural curiosity, about the world they live in, wonder about God and life’s greater meaning.

It’s not just homeschooling parents who should read aloud to their children long after they leave the toddler years. D’Amico makes a convincing case that parents should continue reading with their children as they grow up. For one thing, children often stop being read to in school once they can read independently. For another, reading too often becomes utilitarian in the school setting. After elementary school especially, they are typically reading more textbooks than imaginative literature.

“Imaginative reading is one of the best modes to reach young people’s hearts,” D’Amico says, “yet we have collectively decided as adults to create an arbitrary cut-off for fostering pleasure-filled reading practices.”

For Catholic parents, it’s especially important to have faith-based conversations with children about what we read with them.

Reading forms our identities, ours and our children’s, if we let it, and as adults who care about children, we can help to form those identities toward God.

A Guide for the Guides

As parents, we are a guide for our children as they wonder and explore. D’Amico’s book can serve as a guide, in turn, for us — at least when it comes to selecting and reading books with them.

This book is not about explicitly religious books. Rather, it’s about using imaginative literature to “develop [children’s] faith and analyze it through the analogies of lived experiences that literature provides.” As we help our children to live an integrated life, in which their faith permeates everything they do, books can help.

Reading about people — fictional or otherwise — helps us to develop empathy. In Christian terms, it helps us learn to love our neighbor as ourselves. D’Amico also writes:

Reading can be interpreted as an extension of a type of contemplative life. It strengthens those muscles needed for a strong prayer life because, when we read, we meditate and reflect on others for a long period of time, pausing that ever constant focus on self.

D’Amico’s book focuses on how to explore four Catholic themes through one picture book and one chapter book. The themes are living liturgically, the interplay of faith and reason, the culture of life, and the care of God’s creation. Each chapter shares a summary of the book, how it explores the theme, and discussion and activity ideas. There’s also a list of additional book recommendations at the end of the book, segmented by theme and age level.

Nurturing a Love of Books — and God

LuElla D’Amico’s work focuses on children’s literature and religion, with a focus on girls’ fiction. As the mother of two little girls, I especially appreciate this work. But Wondrous Reading is an invaluable read and reference book for Catholic parents of both boys and girls. Not only is it a pleasure to read, but it also provides a thorough introduction to the use of literature to teach the faith. I highly recommend it (and her Substack newsletter) to anyone wanting to raise readers who love the Lord.

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Copyright 2026 Taryn DeLong
Images: Canva