Children will be delighted by this beautifully illustrated book about friendships that holy women and men have made with animals, just released by Novalis Publishing. Fable-like in tone, these friendships have much to teach us today about how to care for our common home, Earth, and live kindly with all her children. While Christians know of St. Francis and his amicable interaction with birds, wolves and other animals, few have heard the many other touching accounts of friendships between canonized women and men and other creatures. Today, given the Catholic Church’s insistence that the ecological crisis is essentially a spiritual one, the moral of these often-ancient stories offer us guidance, hope and instruction.