Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert

I had never heard of Martin do Porres before but he has a very interesting and inspiring story. He was the son of a former slave and a spanish noble who started his life in poverty and ended up getting and education and eventually becoming a monk after working in the monastery cleaning for many years. He treated everyone equally and was the first black saint from the America's canonized and became the patron saint for interracial marriage among many other things.

The illustrations are very bright and colorful and have matte quality to them that somehow makes them pop more for me. I thought they were very beautiful and the amount of detail in each page is outstanding. The architecture and buildings were impressive and I also thought that show more the people in each drawing managed to show a lot of movement and emotion. Just gorgeous. show less

This enlightening story illuminates the life journey of an illegitimate child who rose from poverty to sainthood. It begins by his mother bringing him into a cathedral, where an unpleased priest baptized him. His mother referred to the infant as "a rose in the desert" and named him Martin. At an early age Martin became an apprentice to a doctor where he discovered his gift of healing. He yearned to be in the priesthood but was denied because of his "impure blood" therefore he agreed to a life of servitude to the Monastery. Throughout his life he shared his miraculous gift of healing with animals and humans, both of poverty and nobility. He transformed from a life of anonymity to everyone referring to him as "a rose in the desert", just show more as his mother did. Eventually, he was allowed to take his vows into priesthood where he continued to share his gift and because of his life of charity he was canonized. show less

The age range for this book could be early elementary to about third grade. This book tells the story of Martín, a young boy in Peru who grows up facing hardship and prejudice because of his mixed heritage. Even with these challenges Martín chooses to live a life of kindness and humility. This book does a really good job highlighting its moral and spiritual message. It emphasizes values like kindness, perseverance, and treating others with dignity, even when you are treated unfairly. This book would be great to use in your classroom to highlight service to others, faith and empathy. The illustrations are warm and expressive, using earthy tones and gentle imagery that match the peaceful and reflective tone of Martín’s life. They are show more easy for students to follow aswell show less

This is a beautifully illustrated book of the life of St. Martin of Porres, the first black Saint, who spent his life starting as a poor fatherless child in the barrios and eventually became a monk. During his life he learned to heal, and became devoted to helping the poor and sick, humans as well as animals. The illustrations are rich, jewel toned pastels, giving the story a magical quality.

This has been my favorite book so far, it challenged compassion and judgments of the community and Martin. I personally felt humbled about my everyday actions with people and animals after reading this book. I think that this book will be a great read for children to show them how you care for others and how good Karma can come around. I absolutely love this book.

I had never heard of Martin do Porres before but he has a very interesting and inspiring story. He was the son of a former slave and a spanish noble who started his life in poverty and ended up getting and education and eventually becoming a monk after working in the monastery cleaning for many years. He treated everyone equally and was the first black saint from the America's canonized and became the patron saint for interracial marriage among many other things.

The illustrations are very bright and colorful and have matte quality to them that somehow makes them pop more for me. I thought they were very beautiful and the amount of detail in each page is outstanding. The architecture and buildings were impressive and I also thought that show more the people in each drawing managed to show a lot of movement and emotion. Just gorgeous. show less

I had never heard of Martin do Porres before but he has a very interesting and inspiring story. He was the son of a former slave and a spanish noble who started his life in poverty and ended up getting and education and eventually becoming a monk after working in the monastery cleaning for many years. He treated everyone equally and was the first black saint from the America's canonized and became the patron saint for interracial marriage among many other things.

The illustrations are very bright and colorful and have matte quality to them that somehow makes them pop more for me. I thought they were very beautiful and the amount of detail in each page is outstanding. The architecture and buildings were impressive and I also thought that show more the people in each drawing managed to show a lot of movement and emotion. Just gorgeous. show less