Review
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Title: Standout Saints
Author: Sierra Wilson
Illustrator: Emily Shay Tueller
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Children’s Nonfiction
Year Published: 2020
Number of Pages: 86
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-62972-806-3
Price:
Reviewed by Heather Harris Bergevin for the Association for Mormon Letters
I grew up in the eighties, and we had children’s books to teach us about different saints and church history. The catch was, we had to deal with all humans of note who were female or not Caucasian being peripheral to the stories of the “important” people, if they were mentioned at all. They were seen merely as appendages to the important work of the Priesthood. This wasn’t my parent’s fault for only buying books about white males…it was just what was offered and available.
Standout Saints: Church History Heroes From Around the World is a book I wish I had been able to find for my children as I was raising them in the gospel. Seeing it is a bit of a chance to reparent myself, even. Being able to teach my three children that there were many, many people seeking to follow the gospel in various ways in our history, including those of cultures around the world, has always been important to me. This book, when my kids were small, would have been such a gift.
Standout Saints is a beautiful book, beautifully made and illustrated, and the beauty of it alone is worthwhile picking it up to read. It wants you to– it is teasing already with multicultural, multiracial portraits on the cover, with Tueller’s wide-eyed and peaceful illustrations who are always looking upwards to God. I was delighted upon opening the book to find that the mini-biographies alternated male and female, and, a little further into the book’s timeline, also included races from around the world. The biographies are approachable and brief, with each portrait facing a page of text. The biographies are readily readable and enjoyable to read, a good treat for children waiting during long meetings or the like.
There are names you will recognize, of course, including Joseph, Hyrum, Emma, and Emmaline. There is strict adherence to LDS correlation historical dialogue, which is to be expected in a book from Deseret, naturally. The biographies are healthy jumping-off points, both readable for later elementary school-aged children, and also functional as read alouds for those who enjoy reading to their young children. They are interesting in their brevity, and, in my opinion, a great way to get names of prominent historical figures into young minds.
As someone who loves biography, I know that introduction to history is important because each figure will seem like a friend when presented in other studies later on. The stories detail both hardships and heroics, which is important to remember for children– that there will always be both in any life. Seeing Mere Mete Whaanga in a feathered cape and expressively, beautifully tattooed chin was particularly poignant to me, as well as seeing Tsune Ishida Nachie in her Kimono.
Having examples of diversity is important.
Representation is important.
Seeing beauty in variations of race and attire are important.
We’ve been discussing a great deal lately in LDS circles about how critical it is to further this representation, in our speaking as well as our art. Those of us who are caucasian especially have to work especially hard to make sure we are not centering the gospel of Christ, an impoverished Jewish refugee man with dark skin and a great calling in life, upon the flawed US system of centering whiteness. I realized as a child how much of our centering, in LDS culture, was upon “Utah Saints,” to whom I didn’t feel connected. It was only as an adult that I began to realize how much more that disconnect would be to those of us who are not white and in the United States.
To be able to normalize in all homes the representation we’ve been discussing as being important is a good step forward, and I’m proud of Deseret Books for recognizing that importance. To be able to not center a book of history upon only the white men in our community is also, naturally, important. I adore men, and white men…but my children and grandchildren need to know that centering our world upon only learning about that one demographic leaves behind so much beauty and history. We want to learn all of it, and be capable of studying all of us, both as humans and as Saints. I sense that this is the goal of this book. I hope that it is but the first volume of many, with many more multicultural and multiracial stories of all of our beautiful variations to come.
I’ll be making sure my nieces and nephews get to read this and will recommend it to families who have children between 5 and 13. It’s also lovely enough to set upon any side table and encourages you to pick it up and flip through to learn, in both, it’s beautiful cover illustrations and the perfect size for carrying about. I think it’s a wonderful gift, and will definitely be going on many lists this Winter! Happy Reading-HB