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This one contains stories like "St Elizabeth" and "Our Lady's Flower Society". This book contains dictation exercises with some of the lessons, as well as vocabulary, and comprehension.
This one contains stories like "St Agnes" by Cardinal Wiseman and "Pope Leo XIII". Besides dictation, vocabulary, and comprehension, this book contains also contains pronunciation and vocabulary lessons.
This one contains stories like "The Power of the Blessed Sacrament" and "Rip Van Wynkle". It also contains pronunciation, dictation, vocabulary, and comprehension with the lessons.
This one contains stories like "King Solomn and the Bees", "Joan of Arc", and "Paul Revere's Ride" by Longfellow. This book does not seem to contain as many additional lessons like vocabulary.
I found this volume very useful for early reading practice with my first-grade daughter. We were able to move into this after she finished the Bob Books. The advantage I saw to this particular primer in contrast with the later series (Cardinal or Faith and Freedom) was that it was much harder for her to guess the words because of either the pictures or the heavy repetition so common in other early readers. The passages are very short, although not particularly story like. Some of the phraseology was rather archaic, such as "Has a boy the jug? A boy has not the jug." (p. 15) We didn't find this to be a big problem. There were also some stories where the perspective is so different that it's almost shocking to our modern ears. For example, a story about seals on pg. 60 indicates that children of that time might have been more familiar with seals from their skin used as clothing than being "acquainted" with the animals themselves.
Since we used this volume just for reading practice, we skipped the segments on vocabulary, word recognition and introductory cursive.
Additional review: This is actually two books in one binding - the Primer and Book One. My daughter dove into the Primer right away and is working her way through it. Each lesson begins with the new words listed with phonetic notations. Most of the lessons have some of the text reproduced in cursive writing. The pictures are beautiful and the stories are wonderful and steeped in Catholic culture. The stories in these two are very short and not really full stories. (N.H., 1999)
Primer: 32 pages + Book One: 98 pages
I am honestly not sure how to use this particular book. It does have spelling words and vocabulary. There are also lessons on Latin Roots, dictation, parts of speech (like synonyms) and abbreviations.
This is a very nice children's prayer book illustrated with full-color cartoon-like pictures. The book includes:
I was pleased to see that the Scripture Citations are from the Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition (the best modern translation of the Bible). This book is particularly well-suited for a First Communion or Birthday gift for a godchild or for parishes or Catholic organizations to give as gifts to First Communicants. It would be nice to put such an attractive and substantial booklet in the hands of every child (so many Catholic children grow up without understanding many of the basics covered by this book). The publisher has made this more feasible by offering it in softcover at such a reasonable price of under four dollars!
Also available in softcover
This little book is deceptively slim yet bursting with wisdom, original prayers, advice and the encouragement of one who knows.
Donna, a writer and mother of five, also seems to have peeked into my life. How does she know what a transforming vocation motherhood has been for me? In a reflection entitled "A Glimpse into the Future" she writes:
If a woman could get a glimpse at
What her world would be
When she becomes a mother,
She would be presented with the reality
That her innermost desires and life plans
would be altered or put on hold
because she would be inundated with the care of others.
If she was also allowed to glimpse the unending joy
she would receive as a mother,
There would be no pause to consider,
No hesitation, as she embraced the whole package,
Knowing in her heart that her children will become her life's desires.
And, in "The Rosary, One Decade at a Time" I see my life reflected: the ways in which our children change our prayer lives are to be celebrated, not bemoaned, and God understands when we do such things as say a halting Rosary and sprinkle bits of prayer throughout our days and our duties.
With quotations from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (who personally encouraged the author), John Paul the Great (who gave Donna his apostolic blessing), Scripture, and a variety of saints, this book is exactly the sort to keep by the bedside, on the prayer table, or in one's purse for the many times we, as mothers, need a boost, a bit of solace or an inspirational lift.
This link to the author's website tells the story of Donna's relationship with Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
Finally, the book itself is lovely, illustrated with a pastel, floral design that is calming and beautiful.
Donna speaks straight to a mother's heart, as she embraces her fellow moms with her uplifting and hopeful message of the salvific beauty of our vocation.
Catholic Saints Prayer Book is a small format, handsomely bound in sewn hardcover and printed in high quality, decorated paper. This little treasure will make a great gift any time of the year. Thirty-two saints, from Saint Anne to Saint Thomas More, are described, quoted and invoked in intercessory prayer.
The traditional illustrations complement the beauty of this little book. The text reflects the teachings of the Catholic Church and our rich traditions! The prayers are write in colloquial style and yet still reverent and respectful.
These charming readers, which are appropriate for a second grade reading level, contain "stories written and compiled in days long past by Catholic nuns in America and dedicated to Mary the Mother of God our dear Lady of the Miraculous Medal." My second grader (who is somewhat advanced in reading level) enjoyed these very much and polished off all four volumes in the first week of school - including one book which she read straight through without putting it down (she requested that I include that detail in the review). She really loves the small size and the beauty of the books themselves and has read them over and over.
I thought it was nice how the stories were so often inter-related as many of them were about the Sisters of Charity and some of their pupils, the founder St. Vincent de Paul, and other related saints, including St. Catherine Laboure and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. The books introduced my daughter to these saints and others (including St. Isaac Jogues and St. Edmund Campion) and she is now planning on working her way through the Vision Books and Mary Fabyan Windeatt titles about these saints.
The books would offer some good reading practice, a little more appealing than the older Catholic reading texts, while promoting Catholic virtues and tidbits from history. The numerous illustrations are black and white silhouette-like drawings.
Because the books were written for younger children many decades ago, they do display a slight amount of "twaddle" in a few places (along the lines of "'Tick, tock, tick, tock,' said the schoolroom clock as it looked down on the children reading and writing. It liked the French country children." - fortunately, most of the stories are not written in this style) and some don't like the way that souls are described as "black" or "white" instead of "in the state of sin" or "in the state of grace" because of the confusing connotations with regard to ethnic background (this also comes up in the Treasure Box Books). Also, although I don't think the authors intended it to come across this way, there is one story in the fourth book which appears to condone one boy beating up another for calling his brother a thief and for cursing. If I remember right, all of these possible objections are limited to the same story in the fourth book ("The Flowery Kingdom" starting on page 45).
4 volumes, 140 pages each