A professional storyteller, Stivender offers rich material here in anecdotes based on growing up Catholic in Philadelphia in the 1950s -Publishers WeeklyHe was the only son of an Irish Catholic mother and a Protestant Navy man. His mother frequently prayed for him to become a priest. But his father warned him, Son, never get a job where you have to wear a dress to work. So Ed Stivender compromised. After earning a bachelor's degree in theology, he taught religion in a Catholic high school, where he found his true calling as a jongleur (loosely-translated as "wandering minstrel-juggler"), telling stories, sometimes with music and often from the Bible. His many years as both a student and a teacher in the parochial school system form the basis for this cycle of stories about growing up Catholic in the 1950s, prior to the reforms of Vatican II. This Catholic collection will teach readers the importance of caring, fairness and respect.