Our family has always loved the beautiful and traditional handcrafted books reprinted by The Neumann Press. We were so sad to learn of the death of the founder and on Wednesday we were saddened once again to hear that Neumann Press will be closing.
According to their email:
We regret that we must close the doors of The Neumann Press. This has been a difficult and painful decision for our family, and we know this closure will be sad news to many of you. We can no longer accept and process orders and are officially closed.
Our goal is to offer any remaining stock of our titles in a closing sale in late summer/early fall 2013, and will keep you all updated as to when the exact dates will be.
We have been slowly collecting the books published by The Neumann Press for many years, and you will find quite a number of them pictured and linked in the archives here at Shower of Roses. While there is still a chance to find these books at various bookstores I wanted to share our collection with you all. I have been able to find some of the titles we were still wanting to purchase on Amazon (though they are quickly selling out), and I know that both Sacred Heart Books and Gifts and Adoremus Books carry books from The Neumann Press as well. I also plan to watch for their closing sale... And start praying that something changes between now and then!
— Beautiful Saint Stories for Children —
Saints and Friendly Beasts Series and other Various Books about Saints for Children
The Neumann Press reprints some of the best saint stories for children! A Story of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and The Little Flower of Jesus are two of our favorites. We also enjoy all the books in the Saints and Friendly Beasts Series by Eva K. Betz including: Blessed Sebastian and the Oxen, St. Martin de Porres and the Mice, St. Colum and the Crane, St. Brigid and the Cows, and St. Germaine and the Sheep. Other wonderful stories in our collection include: A Story of St. John Bosco by Brother Ernest, A Story of Mother Elizabeth Seton by Brother Ernest, A Story of Saint John Vianney By Brother Ernest, A Story of Saint Lawrence by Brother Lawrence Emge, Margaret by Sister M. Juliana of Maryknoll, and A Story of Beethoven by Brother Ernest. St. Thomas More of London Town is the last that I recently purchased to give to the boys eventually.
— Saints for Girls and Boys—
I purchased these two precious books, Saints for Girls: A First Book for Little Catholic Girls and Saints for Boys: A First Book for Little Catholic Boys, during the Easter Sale at Adoremus Press and plan to add them to Rose and Bud's Easter Baskets next year, if I can wait that long. (They may end up getting them for their Birthdays or Christmas!) I just love them both!
— Coloring Books —
I also love this set of Catholic Coloring Books for children! The complete set of ten includes: How Jesus Lived, The Story of Our Lady, The Saints Are My Friends, God is Wonderful, Mother's Day, Talking to God, I believe in For, It's A Joy To Go To Church, The Rose Queen, and Meet Your Angel. Saint Jerome and the Lion is another great coloring book reprinted by The Neumann Press.
— A Catholic Baby's Record Books —
The blue baby book on the left is actually my husband's baby book from 1973! We were so excited to find copies of When You Were Very Small reprinted a number of years ago, with both pink and blue covers. We have been purchasing copies to use for some of our own children as well as to give as gifts.
It's a little smaller than the original, but the artwork throughout is the same!
(Click each picture for a larger view of the gorgeous traditional and Catholic illustrations!)
— Catholic History Books —
A few books published by The Neumann Press are suggested titles in the Connecting With History Booklists, including Founders of Freedom, The Old World's Gift to the New, and Heroes of God's Church! Last year I was thrilled to acquire copies of Bearers of Freedom and Guardian of Freedom through Paperback Swap! Giant of the Western Trail can also be found on our shelves and we just purchased the remaining two titles in the Land of Our Lady Series (Leaders of Freedom and Challenge of Freedom) as well as Priest on Horseback and The Secret of Pooduck Island.
— Teaching The Faith —
For those who use the Baltimore Catechism #2 to teach the faith, the Angel Food for Boys & Girls series (Volume I, II, III, and IV) makes a perfect supplement along with Jen's lists. We also love True Stories for First Communicants, My Mass Book, First Communion Days, Illustrated Catechism for Little Children, and The Holyday Book. My First Communion Catechism is another favorite of mine!
Our children also have copies of I Go To Mass which are kept in our Mass bag.
— Books by Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson —
These two books, A Child's Rule of Life and An Alphabet of Saints, both by Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson are just lovely! There is a third book in the series titled Old Testament Rhymes which recently ordered to go along with our Ancient History study next year.
— Other Great Books for Children —
Jesus and Mary
Sunny Bunny
I Believe: The Creed, Confession, and the Ten Commandments for Little Catholics
Whale and Snales and Heavenly Tales: A Children's Phonetic Reader
Manners in God's House: First Prayers and First Missal
Legends of Saints and Beasts
I love all of these! In fact, I wasn't very happy when I discovered I Believe had been left outside the other night! Thankfully it hadn't rained and it wasn't too damp in the morning... I do love that my children will pull these books off the shelf to read on their own without any encouragement from me. They really love and enjoy reading them too!
A few of these we have had for many years and a couple others arrived in Easter Baskets this year, but I actually purchased Manners in God's House: First Prayers and First Missal to go along with "C" week last fall (As we studied "Church" Along the Alphabet Path) and it is just as sweet as can be!
You can click the following pictures for a closer look at all the precious pages.
— Sermons of the Cure of Ars —
Sermons of the Cure of Ars is simply amazing! My husband will sometimes read sermons from this book during dinner, and in the past I have found so much encouragement and inspiration from this book.
— Other Miscellaneous Books —
We only have a couple of the American Cardinal Readers... I'd love to have the whole set, but it's really expensive and we haven't read the two that we do own yet. (I might need to add Book 4 to my daughter's reading list for next year and try out the primer with my Kindergartner.) We also have a number of Christmas books including A Christmas Chronicle, The Eternal Babe (I think this one has been OOP for awhile now), The Catholic Christmas Book, and The Church Mouse of St. Nicholas (My kids love this one!).
I would have loved to eventually collect the all of the Masterpiece Classics...
If anyone happens to own any of them I'd love to hear about your favorites!