This is a sweet, but challenging story about a 16 year old girl from pro-Confederate Maryland who marries a Union soldier from Connecticut just after the Civil War. The story presents the conflicts of hard feelings and the need for healing between North and South in the context of family relationships. It seems quite unusual as stories usually lead up to an unknown "happily ever after." Here, the emphasis is on this young bride's married life. Cultural and religious differences as well as bitterness from the war make life quite difficult for this young bride living with her husband on his parents' farm. The story makes an interesting backdrop to consider ideas about developing relationships, the give-and-take necessary in marriage and the idea of love and commitment. Appropriate for ages 12 and up.

Pierre-Jean De Smet (1801-1873) was a beloved missionary in the American West who brought the Gospels and the Catholic Faith to many Indians as well as fighting for peace and justice for the Indians and those suffering from the Civil War. A substantial figure in American history, many may remember from the Little House Books that the city in South Dakota that the Ingalls settled in was named after this renowned priest.

This is a readable interesting story which provides many interesting details about Indian life, the cause of the struggles with the Indians, and the role of Catholics in American history. It really shows a much more favorable side to the Indians than we see in many books as we understand their initial trust of white man and how that trust was betrayed over and over again. (Naturally the details vary from tribe to tribe.) Fr. de Smet founded missions among many of the Indian tribes and played influential roles in a number of important peace councils – particularly his encounters with the legendary Sitting Bull.

One reason I think this book is particularly important is that it shows how progressive Catholic teaching is and was on matters relating to the Indians and their rights. Kind of interesting from a book written in the 1950s! Highly recommended. Most appropriate for grades 5-8.

A great book to read alongside this is Brave Buffalo Fighter by John D. Fitzgerald (Bethlehem Books). It brings the same era to life through the eyes of children on a wagon train.

Hans Brinker is a story designed to bring children of the 19th century (from around the world) an understanding and appreciation of the culture, traditions and history of Holland. The story focuses on the Brinker family. Ten years before the story begins, the father was seriously injured working on the dikes (which keep the water out of the reclaimed land of Holland), leaving him with the intelligence of a small child. Mrs. Brinker struggles to meet ends while remaining faithful to her husband's wish to never sell a watch he had given her. The two children, Hans and Gretel, are shunned by many at school for their shabby clothing. Meanwhile the story develops with a number of Hans' schoolmates who take a skating trip along the frozen canals through several important Dutch cities. The boys visit various churches and museums, allowing the reader to be impressed by many interesting tidbits from Holland's history. In the end, Mrs. Brinker and her family's perseverance and faithfulness is greatly rewarded. A heartwarming classic tale and a great read-aloud for the family.

Set in aristocratic England of the late 19th century, this novel by a convert to Catholicism explores the concept of our participation in the Atonement. Young Sir Nevill Fanning is thoughtlessly and unconsciously pagan (though outwardly Catholic) and heir to his dear Aunt Ann's estate. Early on, he falls in love with a Protestant, and this raises various issues both within his aunt and within himself. A Mr. Morpeth represents the holiness and wisdom of the Church as Nevill and Ann work out their salvation.

The novel is at once a profound explanation and touching portrayal of intercessory prayer and atoning suffering, using the unique idiom of the novel, in which the author can create and then unfold an entire cast of characters. Psychological insights and matters of spiritual growth are magnified and clarified in the lens of story. For various reasons, I have recently read a lot of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, and it is all the more interesting to enter into an English countryside world not too far removed from theirs in place or time, but very much removed in theological reach.

It would have been helpful if the publishers had included a table of contents. Several striking passages proved very hard to relocate. There is an extraordinarily sweet and insightful passage about people who see little "signs" in various things. (See Book 2, chapter V, section IV, or, page 261) Even the first passage about initiation, a thoughtful reflection on the difference between those who have come to accept what happens and those who have not, is very hard to find. It's on page 71, and it is clearly the prologue to the interior substance of the story.