Augustine Came to Kent (Living History Library) Paperback – October 1, 1997

This book centres around Wolf, a boy whose father was a Briton, brought to Rome as a slave in the 6th century, and set free by Pope Gregory. Pope Gregory had a concern for the propagation of the Gospel among the "heathen" Saxons in Britain, so he sent a group of monks, led by Augustine, to Britain. Wolf and his father go with them. They land there in 597, and the story follows Wolf as he returns to the land of his fathers, and as the Gospel is preached in Kent. My children, aged 7 - 13 enjoyed this story being read to them, and it really complemented our study of the time period.

Good book. Interesting way to learn about this time period in history.My daughters and I enjoyed reading the book.

We just finished reading this aloud for our homeschool, and the children loved it! They begged for me to read it each day. It is well written, a good story, as well as respectful to history.

If you want to experience the anticipation, fear of the unknown, the dangers, trials and frailty of men who are attempting overseas missions in a pagan land, as well as the day to day life during the late 500's, early 600's A.D., then this is an engaging and well-written story for you. It is detailed without being overly wordy or lengthy. A quick, enjoyable and educational read.

Highly recommend it! This book has it all, adventure, faith, romance, history... a must read! It helped my girls and I get a clearer understanding of the historical time and the greatness of ourFaith.

I am so mixed about this book. It was recommended by my 8th grade child's lesson plans for history and it ends beautifully and is very uplifting in the end but I just couldn't wrap my brain around some of the comments by the author throughout. It was a weird, underhanded negativity that was not necessary to the book and I still am flabbergasted at it. Over and over in the book the religious are shown to be very uncharitable and hard; stern. In fact, even the supposedly "saintly" Augustine the author is constantly describing as being prideful, just constantly. It is hard to describe, so I will simply quote parts of the book:The main character praises the monk he is helping in the kitchen, telling him that "The meat smells wonderfully succulent." Brother Adrian frowned and looked gloomy. "Then I had better burn it a shade or there'll be gluttony among us." AND "That the king should give them the Queen's own chapel, was so comforting to some of the brethren after their ordeals that they became quite puffed up." AND "Brother Severus was i charge of rebuilding the church because he was a disciplinarian. The church was being mended with love, however, and so he was seldom able to find fault. Therefore he bullied the masons and others whom the King had sent, so that they grumbled and threatened to go home." AND "Brother Hugo had turned out badly after all. His apparent merriment was nothing better than a kind of sarcasm. His fatness lent strength to blows he was free in dealing."I know it's minor; but the book was LITTERED with this. Every single time the main character in the story has some type of interaction with the monks it is this way; and Saint Augustine sounded like a hoity toity nose up in the air prideful monk; and the rest under him as having no training and ignorant; and scared at every turn.That being said the book ended fine and it turns more positive as it goes along; talking about how Augustine converted the country. But even then the author downplays this... commenting that most converted just because the king did, etc... which probably is true but it's just all very negative and I felt the book did not spark ANY zeal in me or my kids for missionary work or love of God. If you want a good book about a missionary priest I highly recommend Fingal's Quest by Madeleine Polland. It was AMAZING and really was exciting to read. It has basically the same plot but was super exciting and very zeal and faith inspiring.

I read this out loud to my kiddo as part of her school lessons. It depicts a rich visual of early Christian evangelism in Britain during the reign of King Ethelbert in Kent (not to be confused with the Saxon King Ethelbert who ruled over Wessex 860 AD). Augustine (of Canterbury - NOT to be confused with Augustine of Hippo who wrote Confessions and City of God) was sent on behalf of the Pope (Gregory) from Rome to bring Christ to the pagans. It's an interesting read, rich in what the world must have looked like to the Christians. I look forward to diving into this time period with the kiddo deeper when she's older and finding work that might highlight more of what the people of Kent were feeling. To Barbara Willard's credit, she does not turn a blind eye to the tension for the sake of being child-friendly though the book is child-friendly. Can't wait to acquire all the Living History Library books, they truly do help us remember our history timeline better.

My 10 year old daughter loved this book (she's a good reader). We used it for our history class--much better than reading textbooks!

brilliant book.