When author Linda Etchison’s father passed away, an interesting idea popped into her head. She wanted to create a character in a children’s story and name her Sister Aloysius in honor of her father, Aloysius John Winka. “He never missed an opportunity to talk about his faith and the Catholic Church to anyone in the coffee shop or on the job.” It took a few years for the ideas to percolate before she actually started writing. Etchison’s experience teaching in the public schools, then homeschooling her children, gave her the expertise to write a children’s book from the point of view of the teacher. Although she’s not a religious sister, she remembers what the religious sisters who taught in her grade school were like: happy and full of joy. Sister Aloysius is just that: happy and full of joy.
There are three Sister Aloysius books, with a fourth coming very soon.
Though they are written for children, the author hopes that parents will read the story with their children. In fact, there is a parent guide at the back of each book. The author says, “Sister Aloysius wants everyone to love Jesus as a best friend…my hope is that everyone will come to know Jesus and realize that he is the very best friend anyone could have. For many years as a PSR catechist, I have watched children pass through class seeming engaged and learning the material only to have them leave the Church once they were confirmed. It breaks my heart. My hope with these books is that children and parents will all come to know Jesus as their very best friend and come to love the wonderful Church that he left to help us get to heaven.”
Sister Aloysius Comes to Mercyville is the first in the Sister Aloysius series. In this book, readers will learn how Sister Aloysius happily makes use of her suffering in the heat of the summer day by uniting her discomfort to the agony of Christ on the cross. Along the way she meets a young boy Pio who will be in her second-grade class. Pio helps her with her bag and the two have a very interesting talk about St. Aloysius and patron saints as well as about St. Peter, the first pope.
Sister Aloysius Arrives at Our Lady of Sorrows
This second book in the series focuses on a discussion about the Seven Sorrows of Mary between Sister Aloysius and Pio, a young boy who will be in sister’s second grade class. Sister and Pio discuss how sorrowful Mary must have been as she shared the sufferings of Jesus throughout his life.
Sister Aloysius Gets Ready for the First Day of School
The third in the Sister Aloysius series, has Sister Aloysius making an early morning visit to the Blessed Sacrament before preparing her classroom for the beginning of school. Sister Aloysius has help from Pio, a second-grade student whom Sister Aloysius met upon arriving in Mercyville, and his sister Catherine. Sister, Pio, and Catherine discuss the 3:00 Hour of Mercy and the importance of appealing to Our Lord’s mercy during this time.
Plot Line and Sinker (Ellen Gable, Author) 