Liguori Saints for Sacraments Wins 1st and 3rd Place at 2020 ACP Awards
Liguori’s John the Baptist: Saint for Baptism won first place and Philip Neri: Saint for Confirmation won third place in Children’s: Younger Readers books at the 2020 ACP Excellence in Publishing Awards. Both books were written by Barbara Yoffie and illustrated by Jeff Albrecht.
Liguori Publications, Barbara Yoffie, and Jeff Albrecht wish to thank the Association of Catholic Publishers, which sponsors these awards to highlight the best titles in publishing for the public.
Conscience: Writings from Moral Theology by Saint Alphonsus by Fr. Raphael Gallagher, CSsR, was a finalist in the Theology category. The book is a faithful and pastoral translation of Saint Alphonsus’ work. Fr. Raphael also provides commentaries on each chapter that place the work in context and make the 18th-century text relevant for today.
Two other books by Yoffie and Albrecht were finalists in the Children’s: Younger Readers books category: Maximilian Kolbe: Saint for Anointing of the Sick and Saints for Sacraments Activity Book. These books are all part of Saints for Sacraments, the newest set of Liguori’s popular Saints and Me! children’s books series.
Other sets in the series are: Saints of North America, Saints of Christmas, Saints for Families and Saints for Communities.
Michael the Archangel: Protector of God’s People, part of the Saints for Communities set, was an ACP 2016 Excellence in Publishing Awards finalist, and Padre Pio: Saint for Reconciliation won first place in the Children’s: Younger Readers books category in the 2019 ACP Excellence in Publishing Award.
The Saints and Me! books are popular because of their great stories and colorful and lively illustrations. Albrecht has worked for Disney, Warner Bros., Marvel, DC Comics, and various other Christian publishers from his studio in the St. Louis area.
Yoffie lives in the St. Louis area and is a director of religious education at St. Clement in Des Peres, serving on its school board and parish council. She has worked as both a classroom teacher and certified religion educator in Catholic education for 35 years. She presents workshops on a variety of topics including seasons of the Church year, saints, creative activities, and praying with children. She is an instructor for the Paul VI Pontifical Institute.
“I enjoy sharing my love for the saints with young children. The saints did heroic things for God and the church, but they also lived simply and humbly,” said Yoffie.
“I noticed that many of my Confirmation students would select the same saints over and over again. I started to give them more information and helped them research saints. I realized that we needed to do was introduce the children to saints in kindergarten,” said Yoffie.
Teachers like Saints and Me! because the books contain important material to complete their curriculum for teaching kids about saints such as a map, glossary, and coordinating reproducible activities book to reinforce the stories in each biography with fun word games, activities, and coloring pages.
