Cover Reveal: 'Dear Pope Francis,' the First Children's Book by the Pope

Loyola Press will publish the first children's book written by Pope Francis, Dear Pope Francis: The Pope Answers Questions from Children Around the World, on March 1, 2016. On the heels of the announcement, PW is revealing the cover of the book here.

Edited by Antonio Spadaro, SJ, and Tom McGrath of Loyola Press, Dear Pope Francis is comprised of the Pope’s personal responses to 30 letters and drawings from children ages six to 13 from all over the world. McGrath, managing editor of Dear Pope Francis and director of product development, trade for Loyola, expressed his gratitude to Pope Francis for the chance to publish the “lovely conversation” in the book.

“We’re also grateful to the Jesuit community, as this was an international project of the Jesuits, who worked together to gather letters from all over the globe,” McGrath said in a statement.

McGrath also pointed to the violence currently taking place around the world, including tragedies that are affecting countries where children who wrote letters in Dear Pope Francis live. “It was heartening to be part of a project that was bringing a different, more hopeful story to the world that would counter the stories of darkness that we see so often,” he said. “Loyola Press’s mission is to nurture faith in children and support the spiritual life of adults. We feel that in Dear Pope Francis we are able to accomplish both those aims.”

Children from six continents and 26 countries, including Albania, Syria, China, Kenya, and the United States, are represented in the book, which contains themes such as “love for Pope Francis and curiosity about his life; concerns about the afterlife; a strong sense of justice, both social and theological; the importance of family; and a longing to be seen and heard,” according to Loyola.

Dear Pope Francis will be published in hardcover in English and Spanish in the United States, and will be simultaneously published in Italy, Spain, Mexico, Poland, Indonesia, the Philippines, and India. Format information for those books is not yet available.