Review: Through Living Waters by Claudia Cangilla McAdam
Claudia Cangila McAdam is a prolific Catholic author who has published over twenty books for children and young adults. She is known for using biblical historical fiction to help children understand Bible stories in an age-appropriate manner.
Claudia has been working on a series of books from Acension Press on the sacraments. Today I am reviewing her latest installment in the series, Through Living Waters: An Origin Story About Baptism (Ascension Press, 2025, illustrated by Gina Capaldi). It tells the story of Rachel, who has a deathly fear of water. She hears Jesus say to his followers that if they believe and are baptized, they will be saved. However, she is confused and still frightened. Yet, when she learns that the waters of baptism make her a child of God and bring eternal life, her fears get washed away.
Biblical historical fiction is a type of historical fiction that explores biblical narratives through the vantage point of fictionalized characters. It seeks to expand the stories of the Bible through the engagement of the fictional characters with biblical events. A classic example of this is Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur, which uses the fictional life of a Judean prince, Judah Ben-Hur, as a way to explore the impact of Christ’s message of grace and forgiveness.
In Claudia McAdam’s Through Living Waters, the protagonist Rachel learns about the importance of baptism through her interaction with John the Baptist, Jesus, and St. Peter. Various biblical stories relating to water are incorporated, including the baptism of John, Jesus, and Nicodemus, as well as the miracle of Cana and the blind man healed by the spittle of Christ. Through these events, Rachel learns of the supernatural significance of water in the sacrament of the Gospel. The promise of the grace available through the sacrament of baptism helps Rachel to overcome her fear of water.
Award-winning illustrator Gina Capaldi, a celebrated artist with a long resume of design in both the secular and religious fields, does the book’s illustrations. Her watercolors straddle the line between stylization and realism, which gives the illustrations a dreamy quality.
Through Living Waters is a pretty straightforward book; its purpose is to draw on biblical imagery of water to explain the meaning of baptism to children in an age-appropriate manner, and in this, it succeeds. I would say its intended audience is younger children—likely around ages 4-6, those who are old enough to understand basic symbolism but still require a fairly straight-forward narrative for comprehension.
One cool thing about Ascension books is that they often create promotional video trailers for their publications. Through Living Waters has a promotional trailer (here) where you can see samples of the book and Gina Capaldi’s artwork. Previous entries in the series include A Miracle for Micah (First Reconciliation), The Real Presence(Holy Communion), and The Day God’s Helper Came (Confirmation).
Through Living Waters: An Origin Story About Baptism is available for purchase from the Ascension Press website.
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