cover image Mother Teresa: 2sister to the Poor

Mother Teresa: 2sister to the Poor

Patricia Reilly Giff. Viking Children's Books, $10.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-670-81096-3

In the new addition to the outstanding Women of Our Times series, Giff tells the story of a great woman, simply but eloquently. Lewin's pictures complement the biography admirably, showing events in Albania where Agnes Bojaxhiu was born in 1910 and in her later life. (Giff explains how to pronounce Agnes's patronym and all the unfamiliar words here.) At age 18, she became a nun, Sister Teresa, traveling far from home to India to serve as a teacher. But the future Mother Teresa began to follow ""the little way'' of her inspiration, the great French Saint Therese and other selfless persons like the leper priest, Father Damian, and the humble black Peruvian, St. Martin de Porres. Mother Teresa left the safe convent to go out on the streets of Calcutta where she devoted herself to caring for ``the poorest of the poor.'' Today her mission has spread all over the world with men and women disciples serving according to her example. Mother Teresa was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, but avoids attention to herself, saying ``only the work is important.'' Children can learn tht one human being with faith and love has made a difference. (7-11)