What's New

Guns for General Washington. A Story of the American Revolution

Author(s): 
Seymour Reit
The future looks dim for the Continental army. With scare firewood, little needed supplies of food, blankets and muskets, meager shelter, and disorganized soldiers deserting, the prospects of winning the war, let alone recapturing Boston look doubtful. To compound the problem, their munitions supply is dwindling fast and they have no heavy artillery to defend themselves or create an offensive attack. Aboard the HMS Somerset General Howe, the commander of the British army, is anxiously awaiting reinforcements. But Col. Henry Knox is not one to sit idle and wait.

Lydia Longley, The First American Nun

Author(s): 
Helen A. McCarthy
Illustrator(s): 
John Lawn
Dramatic changes are in store for Lydia Longley when her father brings home a new mother for his children. At the time she is twelve-years-old. This change, however, proves to be small in comparison to the traumatic event that changes her life forever when she is twenty. While everyone is busy preparing breakfast, a party of Abenaki Indians raids their peaceful farm, killing her parents, brothers and sisters. Miraculously, they spare her life along with her younger brother and sister.

A Picture Perfect Childhood

A Picture Perfect Childhood
Author(s): 
Cay Gibson
There are only a few books that I know I'll love even before I see them - and this was definitely one. Picture book afficionado Cay Gibson serves up a delicious array of picture books of all sorts to discover and savor for yourself from your local library (and hopefully start a collection of your own as well).

Red Butterfly

Author(s): 
Deborah Noyes
Illustrator(s): 
Sophie Blackall
When I first read aloud Mary Daly's First Timeline to the children, it was the first time I had ever heard of the story of the young Chinese Princess and the cup of tea where the silk strands first unravel revealing themselves... such a captivating story. Then Mary asked me to illustrate it for wider publication... and I just loved doing the Chinese teacup! Well, last week at the library, browsing as I always do through the new picture books, I found a Chinese princess and the tale of the discovery of silk!

Q&A for Lent and Easter

Author(s): 
Theresa K. Driscoll
Kelley L. Renz

This is a rather unique resource for Lent. It's a quiz book written at three levels of difficulty with all sorts of questions and answers about the Catholic Church's celebration of Lent and Easter. It primarily focuses on Church liturgy, with a very significant focus on the process of Christian initiation, culminating with the Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil.

Saints for Sinners

Author(s): 
Archbishop Alban Goodier
There is nothing quite like reading the lives of the saints to give us hope and inspiration. Saints for Sinners from Sophia Institute Press brings many of these inspiring and holy lives to the reader drawing both from well-known and obscure saints' lives. Archbishop Alban Goodier selected these saints because in many ways their lives seemed like failures. In the eyes of the world, they amounted to very little--or so it seemed in their own time. In the eyes of God, however, their lives remain as heavenly models for us today! Two aspects make this volume relevant and timely.

A Reading Program for Overcoming Dyslexia

Book cover
Author(s): 
Cheryl Orlassino
I recently came across a program entitled A Reading Program for Overcoming Dyslexia by Cheryl Orlassino. My eight year old falls under the generic term of dyslexia. We've been struggling the last two and half years with reading. We have not completed the book yet as I only ordered it a month ago. So far so good---he does not clam up and cry every time we start our reading/phonics lesson and is beginning to decode on his own without just memorizing the words. In fact, he's writing words from his lessons all over his art work.

1000 Years of Catholic Scientists

Book cover: 1000 yea
Author(s): 
Jane Meyerhofer

Nearly 200 Catholic scientists from the past thousand years are overviewed by means of brief biographies, with dates and places where each scientist lived and worked. The scientists are listed in chronological order with an alphabetical index in back. The author's primary source of information is the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 (which can be found online at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen).