Pope John Paul II: Young Man of the Church

by George E. Stanley

Pope John Paul II was born Karol Wojtyla on May 18, 1920, in Poland. As a child Karol excelled in school -- especially in religion and literature. He was a star soccer player and also hiked and kayaked. But most of all Karol loved poetry and theater. Although Karol was liked and respected by his peers, his childhood was touched by tragedy. His mother passed away when he was only nine years old, and three years later his beloved older brother, Edmund, died from scarlet fever.
Karol grew up in a time of great uncertainty for Poland. Although he was born into an independent Poland, he was a young man during the Nazi occupation of his homeland in World War II. When many Poles were anti-semitic, Karol had Jewish friends; when his country turned its back on religion, Karol studied in secret to become a priest. This fascinating biography details Karol's childhood and the events that led him to be named Pope John Paul II in 1978.

176 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

George Edward Stanley was born in Memphis, Texas on July 15, 1942. He received a bachelor's degree in 1965 and a master's degree in 1967 from Texas Tech University. He earned his Doctor Litterarum in African Linguistics in 1974 from the University of Port Elizabeth in South Africa. He lived all over Europe and Africa, studying and teaching foreign languages, working for the U.S. government, and writing books for young people and adults. He started writing fiction while a Fulbright professor in Chad, Central Africa, where about the only diversion he found available was listening to the BBC on his short wave radio. That led to his writing radio plays for a program called World Service Short Story. Three of his plays were eventually produced. After writing and publishing over 200 short stories in American, British, Irish, and South African magazines and linguistics articles in major international journals, he started writing books. He wrote over 100 fiction and non-fiction books for young people including The Katie Lynn Cookie Company series and the Adam Sharp series. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of M. T. Coffin, Franklin W. Dixon, Laura Lee Hope, Carolyn Keene, Adam Mills, and Stuart Symons. He was a professor of African and Middle-Eastern languages and linguistics in the department of foreign languages at Cameron University. He died from a ruptured aneurysm on February 7, 2011 at the age of 68.

Reviews

[Amazinggrace · Rating 1 out of 5]

I believe this book promotes some very negative, stereotypical thinking. And I suspect it is based on the author's creative license to "fill in the blanks" with some fictional narrative as he tells the story.
The preface acknowledges that there is a weaving of the two.

Here are two glaring examples.

(1) On the very first few pages, the midwife of John Paul's mother tells John's father and older brother that "men have no place in the birthing room". Really? Is that the message of God or John Paul or even the Catholic church?

(2) The author makes frequent referral to the "peasants" in John Paul's village. I take great offense at that term. Do we honestly believe that the people he is referring to actually saw themselves that way? Or is that just the author's cultural way of thinking about people who have less money or social position? I would suspect that the "peasants" were simply "people" making the best out of the life they were living.

Do the above examples resonant with you? I think these are unworthy perspectives to be sharing with young people who are learning about a Pope that was inclusive, and apparently less "classist"than the author.

[Claudette Wielechowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a nice, simple biography of Pope John Paul II’s life.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm reading this aloud to my two boys (5 and 7) they are really interested in it. And the fact that it is a true story is important to them. I didn't realize how much they were craving some good non-fiction. We have already ordered a couple more from this series which includes; Childhood of World Figures, as well as Childhood of Famous Americans.

Update: The boys loved it. It left me craving more information on this amazing man.