What's New

The Educated Child

Book cover: The Educated Child
Author(s): 
William J. Bennett
Chester E. Finn
John T.E. Cribb

This book is designed to assist parents in choosing and judging good schools and how well their children are doing there. Brief "scope and sequence" lists (based on the Core Knowledge Curriculum) and some suggested resources are included. Although it is not specifically aimed at homeschoolers, homeschoolers are favorably addressed in several portions and will find much useful advice and ideas in the book.

The New Catholic Quiz: First Grade

Book cover: 'The New Catholic Quiz: First Grade'

This book provides 200 questions (50 each in four different categories based on the four sections of the Catechism of the Catholic Church - Beliefs, Sacraments, Morality and Prayer) to help children reinforce basic points of Catholic doctrine. Each page has a question from each category with answers on the back of the page. The color-coding makes for easy reading and checking of answers. My children really enjoyed the sometimes humorous choices for the multiple-choice questions. I thought these made the Quiz more engaging and helped them be more memorable for children.

Catholic Bible Quiz: Elementary Level

Book cover: 'Catholic Bible Quiz: Elementary Level'
Author(s): 
Joe Rivera
David House
etc

This book provides 200 questions and answers - forty each in five different categories - the Law, the Prophets, Wisdom, the Gospel and the Epistles. The book is designed to be used as a quiz game - keeping score (based on the difficulty of the questions - each question is awarded a particular point value) to determine the winner. It could just as easily be used as an informal reinforcement of Bible Study. It is very similar in format to the New Catholic Quiz (also reviewed on this site).

The Holy Bible: Douay Rheims Version

Book cover: 'The Holy Bible: Douay Rheims Version'

The Douay Rheims Bible is supposed to be the most accurate, Catholic, translation of the Bible available in the English language. The Old Testament was translated into English in 1609 and the New Testament in 1582 and revised in its entirety (and "diligently compared with the Latin Vulgate") by Bishop Richard Challoner from 1749-1752. Although the some of the language would be considered archaic today (lots of "thees" and "thous") but it really is beautiful.

The Ignatius Bible

Book cover: 'The Ignatius Bible: Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition (RSVCE)'

This is the best translation available in "modern" English (without the "thees" and "thous" found in the Douay Rheims translation). For many of us today, this language is more familiar and comfortable and is probably easier for small children to understand. We use both translations in our home and find this one a little better for reading aloud to the family. It does not contain the "feminized language" (a.k.a. "inclusive language") found in most of the modern translations of the Holy Bible.

A Place to Hide

Book cover: A Place to Hide
Author(s): 
Jayne Pettit

This book contains true stories of remarkable people (mostly Christians, including many Catholics) who saved the lives of Jews from the Nazis in World War II. According to this book, despite six million Jews killed by the Nazis, it is estimated that two million Jewish children were saved by rescuers such as the sampling presented in these stories. It is estimated that the number of rescuers (those who harbored Jews in their homes, transported them to safety, etc.) is anywhere from fifty-thousand to five hundred thousand.


The stories here include:

Twenty and Ten

Book cover: 'Twenty and Ten'
Author(s): 
Claire Huchet Bishop
A very remarkable true story of twenty Catholic children, living in the country (to escape the war) with their teacher (a Catholic nun) who agree to hide ten Jewish children from the Nazis. The children show great heroism in offering to share even their meager food and bedding with these children and bravely face the Nazis alone while their teacher is detained. The story is a bit suspenseful, but ends beautifully (and a bit poetically) and could be read-aloud to fairly young children (Approximately 4th grade reading level). Highly recommended!

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

Book cover: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Author(s): 
Judith Kerr

A well-written and engaging account, based on the author's experiences of a young (non-religious) Jewish girl and her family who escape from Germany in the 1930s and live for a time in Switzerland and then France before finally moving on to England. We see the escalation of Hitler's Germany from somewhat of a distance and the struggles of a displaced family trying to stay out of Hitler's reach (the father was a well-known writer who eventually has a price put on his head by Hitler).

Thomas A. Edison: Young Inventor

Book cover: Thomas A. Edison: Young Inventor
Author(s): 
Sue Guthridge
Illustrator(s): 
Wallace Wood

This is a fascinating and often humorous story of one of the most renowned inventors of all time. As a boy, Edison was fascinated by the world around him and full of questions about everything. Although he had many mentors as a boy, his first grade teacher reacted so negatively to his natural curiosity that his mother took him out of school and taught him at home. His adventures involving chemistry, trains and printing newspapers make for enjoyable and interesting reading.