All ages

Homer Price

Book cover: 'Homer Price'
Author(s): 
Robert McCloskey
These clever and humorous stories of the adventures of a brainy, problem-solving small-town boy make great reading for grade-schoolers (especially boys) or a terrific read-aloud. This is suitable for rolling-on-the-floor type laughing (not terribly well-suited to bedtime!). A real classic! The sequel, Centerberg Tales is just as good. Older children may also appreciate allusions to liberal naming of townspeople after characters from the Iliad.

Mama's Bank Account

Book cover: 'Mama's Bank Account'
Author(s): 
Kathryn Forbes

When I first proposed to read this story aloud to my children, my oldest, then perhaps 8 or 9 years old, protested loudly! She thought it was going to be a series of numbers and notes about expenditures that I was going to read to her. It only took a little persuading and a few pages before she was hooked. This is a true story - really a set of simple reminiscences - about a Norwegian immigrant family living in San Francisco in the early 1900s (somewhere between the 1906 earthquake and World War I).

Celtic Heritage Saints

Book cover: 'Celtic Heritage Saints'
Author(s): 
Marian Keaney
This book offers short, readable biographies of sixteen of Ireland (and Scotland's) greatest saints (covering the years from St. Patrick through 1142). The writing style and illustrations are reminiscent of Once Upon a Time Saints by Ethel Pochocki (Bethlehem Books). Despite the simplicity of the book (approximately a 4th grade reading level) it covers an important and oft-forgotten part of Catholic history.

Fingal's Quest

Author(s): 
Madeleine A. Polland
This work of historical fiction brings to life the stories of the great monasteries of Ireland and their evangelization of Europe (in the 6th Century), which had fallen away from the true faith after the Barbarian invasions. The story focuses on Fingal, a poor, fatherless boy, who becomes a student at Bangor Monastery in Ireland and becomes a stowaway in order to follow his beloved teacher Columban to Gaul. His lengthy quest to find Columban has some interesting parallels to growth in the spiritual life.

The Song of Bernadette

Book cover: 'The Song of Bernadette'
This is a beautiful, Academy Award winning movie depicting the apparitions of Our Lady to Saint Bernadette in Lourdes, France, in the mid-1800s. The depiction is accurate - based on the book of the same title by Franz Werfel - but also beautifully and powerfully produced. Jennifer Jones is the simple and unpretentious Bernadette, Vincent Price is a town magistrate who is skeptical of the apparitions and rather hostile to Bernadette. An excellent family film and one of the finest Hollywood films of a religious nature.

Truth Was Their Star

Book cover: 'Truth Was Their Star'
Author(s): 
Sr. Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P.
Recently republished by New Hope Publications, the lay Dominican community in New Hope KY, Truth Was Their Star by Sr. Mary Jean Dorcy, OP offers a gentle introduction to various Dominican saints. Naturally, since she is a Dominican, she would be interested in sharing the lives of several Dominican saints. While not talking down to the child, the text is written as though speaking to a younger child. Each chapter is really an introduction to a particular saint offering a vignette about his or her life, or encapsulating a series of popular stories about the saint.

Saints for Young Readers for Every Day

Book cover: 'Saints for Young Readers for Every Day'
Rather than take a morning vitamin, our family reads Saints for Young Readers for Every Day every morning! It is a two volume set, with a saint story for every day (sometimes two). The first volume contains saints for January to June, the second volume covers the rest of the year. This hardcover set is a little expensive, but worth the money. We leave it on the kitchen counter, and do a daily reading with breakfast each day. The stories are well-written, engaging, and always one or two pages in length. There are black and white line drawings that accompany some stories.

Heroes of God's Church

Author(s): 
Father P. Henry Matimiore, S.T.D.
"In writing this volume, the purpose has been to acquaint our children with biographies that will have some particular influence on the development of their characters. Each story has been planned as a real character-training project, not merely as a reading lesson to inspire admiration for faith and religious heroism." (From the Foreword)

City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction

Author(s): 
David Macaulay
Artist, author and scientist David Macaulay presents a fascinating account of the founding, building and development of a fictional Ancient Roman city. Don't be thrown off by the "fictional" part. We don't know this many details of any particular Roman city, so the author has gathered facts and details from various cities and formed them into one complete story. They are carefully researched and accurately portrayed in detailed black and white drawings.

The Fourth Magi

The Fourth Magi is the story of Artaban, a Persian magi, whose family has recently died tragically. Artaban, while studying the stars, discovers a new star, the one foretold in the Old Testament. He resolves to follow the star and find Jesus, despite the ridicule of his friends. Taking his ever-complaining slave, Orantes, he embarks on his perilous journey of faith.

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