Pope Benedict XVI has given us a gift of a second volume illuminating the events of the life of Christ. The first volume,Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration was reviewed here. Like the first volume, it is a book written for adults, but may be appropriate for group study among teenagers, provided that expectations regarding understanding are kept reasonable.

This is a simple, lovely work, of fine literary quality, about a thoroughly modern brother and sister and their blunt Ukrainian maid, who feels out-of-place in London and misses having a "good place" in the kitchen. A good place, according to Marta is something like this: "In my home, Ukrainian home, we make a good place...A place on top of cupboard, perhaps, or perhaps on shelf. Little place but it holy because we keep there Our Lady and Holy Child." When questioned by the children, she explained further. It wasn't a statue and not a picture. "Like picture but more beautiful.

This is a brief, engaging and heavily illustrated biography of the world's first historian. Herodotus lived in the Greek city of Halicarnassus in the Persian empire during the 5th century BC. His situation and personality put him an ideal place to tell the fascinating stories of the Persian Wars (think Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis) and to travel extensively and collect stories from all over. His original writings are a fascinating read for upper high school or college. This is unique in that it shares the basic history of his own life, told in first person narrative.

NurtureShock is a parenting book with a strong scientific foundation that's designed to have a big impact on breaking some of society's misguided conventions regarding parenting and education; which looks to be an exceptionally good thing. It focuses on a number of issues relating to parenting and education in which good science shows us a different view from current cultural assumptions.