About Us
Greetings, from our Catholic family to yours!
It has been almost 14 years since we mailed our first issue of Catholic Child Catalog. That autumn of 1996 found our sons returning to elementary school and our little daughter "playing school." She was nearly two and spent her days with her dad and me as we processed and packed orders for our Angel Book Club company.
We have to mention the book club because that's where it all started. We'd begun Angel Book Club 16 years before to fill a need for the kids at Catholic schools: we believed those children deserved and needed a faith-based alternative to what the secular book clubs had to offer. As we filled student book orders for those Catholic school teachers we began to hear from parents. And what we heard was that they wanted more!
More books on lives of the saints and the sacraments, the Rosary and Church teachings; more movies, games and storybooks to teach and celebrate their Catholic faith. These parents from across the nation seemed to be echoing our own thoughts: WHY was it so hard to find appealing, fun, doctrinally sound Catholic-based resources to bring our children up on?
Over the years we found our own collection of favorites growing - picture books our children were drawn to day after day, audio stories that put a dent in long journeys, story books we never tired of reading aloud to them, games that were both fun and faith-based, and movies that nurtured our family faith, reflected our morals AND held our children's interest. We realized that we had a collection worth sharing. And so, our fourth child was born!
Joseph and I used to joke that our Catholic Child project was like our fourth child; it required our love, prayers and attention; demanded that we trust in our Lord as we journeyed into unknown territory; reminded us to keep a sense of humor and, gave us a sense of hope.
Since that first issue of Catholic Child Catalog we've nurtured it and watched it grow right along with our children, who as kids were eager to be our #1 product testers. Today our eldest is a college grad, our second has two more college years, and that baby who used to "play school" is a high school freshman. We appreciate their opinions more than ever, only now we now have to bribe these busy young adults into reviewing peer products!
Like our kids, Catholic Child Catalog has grown up. What you see here is the third launch of our web site over the last decade. Our looks may change but our commitment to you will not. Each one of the hundreds of items you find here has been chosen by us with care, reviewed for faith, and child and parent approved. When you buy from us you are supporting an independently owned, personally run business that remains committed to searching out products to guide, inspire and delight the young Catholics in your life.
Our goal is to help you find products to nurture the faith of your Catholic child. We hope you'll let us know if we have succeeded.
Sincerely,
Leane and Joseph Ambrosio,
Founders, Catholic Child Catalog
