High School

The Reed of God

Author(s): 
Caryll Houselander
Passing along to others the concept of such an incredibly personal and delicate matter as the value of suffering can be extremely difficult. It's so easy to come across as heavy-handed, trite or condescending - and many materials do! Here is it presented a loving and very gentle way by means of Our Lady. Mary brought Christ to the world through her faith, love and humility and we are called to do the same.

Gregor Mendel

Author(s): 
Simon Mawer
Regarding the scientific life of Gregor Mendel, there’s not much to tell. He grew up desperately poor and sought the priesthood to escape the robata system of farming. After carrying out his now famous experiments, the significance of which not even the best scientific minds of the day could grasp, he became abbot of the St. Thomas friary, a position whose demands prevented further scientific endeavors. Mawer tells Mendel’s story and gives the details, but only enough to give us a sense of Mendel the scientist.

Charles and Emma

Author(s): 
Deborah Heiligman
I learned a few things from this young adult book about the life of Charles Darwin after his adventures on the H.M.S. Beagle. The book is based on his and his wife’s diary entries and because Charles was the more prolific writer we have more of his insights than Emma’s. The quoted material is more of a sprinkling than a basis for the book so it is mostly the author’s interpretation rather than their actual words. Charles was agnostic from the start.

The Queen's Thief Series (The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, A Conspiracy of Kings)

Author(s): 
Megan Whalen Turner
If you, like us, have voracious readers always eager for, sometimes demanding, new reading material, Margaret Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief series is definitely worth a try. Set in a fictionalized version of Greece in something like the sixteenth century, the series continually reveals Mrs. Turner’s love for Greece, its landscape, mythology, learning and even politics. The stories are set in three small adjoining countries, Sounis, Eddis and Attolia.

Finding Darwin's God

Book cover: Finding Darwin's God
Author(s): 
Kenneth Miller

This book sat on our bookshelf for quite a while, unread. Honestly, I found the title offputting, especially given Charles Darwin's known rejection of God in his own life. Eventually, my husband read it, and encouraged me to do the same. Dr. Miller says that he was perturbed by what he saw as some Christians' distrust of science, displayed specifically in their rejection of evolutionary theories in favor of creationism or intelligent design. This is a particular concern of Miller, who is himself a Catholic and co-author of the popular "Miller and Levine" high-school biology text.

Excellence in Literature: British Literature

Author(s): 
Janice Campbell
As I stated in my review of the American Lit 11th grade volume, I am very impressed with this new publication by the Institute for Excellence in Writing. This one focuses on British Literature and it is recommended for 12th grade. I am afraid my review of this volume must be rather a repeat of the 11h grade American Lit volume as so much is the same: the number of units, the format, and of course the author, Janice Campbell. So again I say this is a user-friendly, comprehensive and resourceful British Literature Course.

The Kitchen Madonna

Author(s): 
Rumer Godden
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.

Excellence in Literature: American Literature

Author(s): 
Janice Campbell
I am very impressed with this new publication by the Institute for Excellence in Writing. It is a user-friendly, comprehensive and resourceful American Literature Course, recommended for 11th grade English. I'd say it is a real possibility I will be using that in our homeschool co-op next year, and it could definitely be doubled as English and Lit. Visit to their website for info and sample pages. The text consists of nine units, all centered around one main work of American Literature.

Herodotus and the Road to History

Author(s): 
Jeanne Bendick
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.

Spring's Gift of Hope

Author(s): 
Monique Niemaszyk
Illustrator(s): 
Rosemary McAvoy
"Spring's Gift of Hope" is the first book by Moniqe Niemaszyk I read. I understand it is the second of a series and I look forward to the upcoming ones. Although you may want your child to read the first one ("Birthday Snow") of the series first, this volume read very independently. A New England Catholic family of five children deals with the care and death of an older aunt, and protagonist 18 yr old Gina gets ready for college and a possible romantic relationship. Lessons are learned, hearts are touched, and an example of healthy family and prayer life is gently portrayed.

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