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Little Stories for Little Folks is a Catholic phonics readers set that offers an inexpensive alternative to the Bob Books. The entire Bob Books set (5 sets of booklets retailing for approximately $15 each) costs about $75 retail. In contrast, Little Stories for Little Folks costs about $25 for the whole program. While the Bob Books and other readers might turn out to be helpful for some families (and are available at some libraries), many families have been very grateful for this charming Catholic set at such a good price.

The Parent's Guide offers steps to prepare your child to read by using the enclosed flashcards (printed on card stock) to gain letter and sound recognition and then proceeding to work on pre-reading blends (with the pre-reading sound blend sheets that are included in the program and printed on card stock). After these steps are accomplished, the child will be ready to proceed to the phonics readers. The parent's guide also offers discussion questions to help your child get more out of each story.

There are four sets of readers, each set being identified by its own color. The booklets and flash cards come as an 8 1/2 x 11 pad. Each booklet starts out as a regular-sized piece of paper which you fold into four to form a child-sized booklet.

Level 1 contains 15 booklets. The story titles are: "At Mass", "Stop! Hot Pot!", "Sad Nip", "Mud on the Rug", "The Hot Pup", "Mom Gets Help", "The Rat", "Little Ann", "Bat the Ball", "Funny Ann", "The Campers", "God With Us", and "Messy Room".

This set starts with simple words such as "pat" and "sat" and progresses slowly to more complex words like "tent", "small" and "under".

Level 2 contains 10 booklets. The story titles are: "Dad's Cake", "Mrs. May is Sick", "Mike's Bike", "Visit the Sick", "We Hope to See the Pope", "The Little Goat with No Sense", "The Cold Rain", "Feed the Hungry", "The Tease", and "Noon Potluck."

This level starts with words like: "cake" and "taste" and progresses to words like "salad", "baby" and "table".

Level 3 contains 10 booklets. The story titles are: "Ann Cleans the Church", "Blessed Sacrament", "St. Paul", "A Toy for a Boy", "At the Beach", "The Found Rosary", "Run the Race", "School, Where?", "The Quake", and "I Didn't Know".

The starts with words like "kneel" and "holy" and progresses to words like "receive" and "neighbor".

Level 4 contains 10 booklets. The story titles are: "The Bright Star", "The Caught Calf", "Mr. Brown's First Holy Communion", "Kim's Adoption" (in two parts), "In the Match Box", "Badge Fudge", "Squirt", and "Our Lady's Secret".

This level starts with words like: "night" and "follow" and progresses to words like "cheerfully" and "enough".

This biography of St. Therese of Lisieux for children emphasizes the story of her childhood, her simple spirituality as taught to her by her family with an emphasis on the little acts of sacrifice she made and how that helped her to develop control of her will. The story includes many details of Therese's childhood and family life that Catholic homeschool families will relate to. It is told in a way that encourages young children to offer little sacrifices to God in imitation of this saint. I was particularly amused to hear that St. Therese at first did not want to study her lessons and would hide from her mother. I know that this particular behavior is one that has frustrated a number of homeschooling mothers. They may be encouraged to know that Zelie Martin struggled with this too and may wish to ask Blessed Zelie and Saint Therese to gain the cooperation of their children. The book also includes numerous pen and ink illustrations (on almost every page) which highlight the ways in which St. Therese imitated Our Lord even as a small child. A sixteen page segment in the middle of the book provides a timeline and a number of black and white reproductions of photos and paintings depicting her life.

This new book on the liturgical year was published last year by a recent homeschool graduate. The segment on Advent covers 34 pages (the pages are 8 1/2 x 11 inches with very dense text - so this is quite a bit of material). Miss McEneany, has provided a very thorough, updated resource for Advent traditions by bringing together detailed instructions, ideas and explanations from a wide variety of resources (including quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and explanations about traditions from the Byzantine rite). This segment on Customs for Advent includes information about the Advent Wreath, (and the Byzantine Advent wreath), the Christ Candle, Jesse Tree Symbols and corresponding Old Testament readings, Advent Friends (sometimes called Kris Kringles), Gifts and Cribs for Jesus (to prepare with good deeds, prayers and sacrifices during Advent), ideas for daily spiritual devotions during Advent and quite a bit more. Each explained custom (where appropriate) also includes related prayers.

The second chapter provides detailed ideas for Home Education during Advent by means of a unit study on the time before Christ. This unit study ties together a certain amount of History, English/Vocabulary, Geography, Religion, Math, Literature, Health, Religion, Art, Science, Home Economics and Latin/Music in order to delve deeper into the meaning of Advent.

Chapter three covers Advent Recipes which differ from older books because of a more modern emphasis on natural foods. I would also have to explain that the recipes are not necessarily "traditional" Advent recipes, but rather natural food recipes that would be considered appropriate for Advent. This chapter includes an extensive segment on growing sprouts as well as recipes for dishes (along with explanations of why they are appropriate) such as: Avocado Potato Salad; Root, Sprout and Flower Noodle Salad; Carrot Salad Fish Loaf, Beet Soup, Avocado-Cauliflower Cream Soup, Carrot Cake and Sprouted Sunflower Burgers. All recipes in the book are meatless and in fact contain no animal products (making them cholesterol free). A four page section in the middle of the book provides glossy, full-color photos of the recipes, many of which incorporate festive decorations. The book also includes an extensive bibliography, a listing of sources for materials and foods mentioned in the book and an alphabetical index of recipes.

Lord of the World, written in the early part of the 20th century, is an intelligent and Catholic fictional extrapolation on the trend towards Modernism described and condemned by Pope Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis and Lamentabili Sane

The setting is a future society where the Catholic Church is no more than an embattled remnant. In the popular and intellectual view, culture has moved past the "need" for faith in the supernatural. Near the beginning of the book, two young priests discuss with their superior how to regain some Catholic foothold in a culture which has been de-sacramentalized; of the two, one goes over to the enemy's side, while the other will be hunted and scorned for his faith. The latter priest, Father Percy, a sort of focal point of the book, has the odd distinction of being physically almost identical to his counterpart, a mysterious international leader who has a more-than-human influence on the people he gathers around him. This anti-Christ figure is personable, not obviously evil, and seems in all ways more powerful than the fugitive priest - but as Christ's representative, Father Percy is ultimately victorious in the task he is called to carry out. Their physical resemblance seems to be a device to underline the contrast.

The contrast is also demonstrated in their respective influences on a married couple and the husband's mother, who are key characters in the book. The mother is drawn back towards the sacraments as she drifts closer to death while the attractive couple move from kind "tolerance" to active antagonism for the church and all it represents.

Modern humanitarian secularism eases into savage barbarism and the light of truth seems to flicker and die, but though the events are dark, the ending demonstrates that the battle has been won on a supernatural level even while lost by worldly standards.

I would probably save this book for an older high-schooler who is mature enough to distinguish between tenets of the faith and imaginative extrapolation. It might be quite interesting to read this book alongside some secular works in the same genre - Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, or even some of the works of H.G. Wells. Another book written from a Catholic perspective, a science fiction post-apocalyptic classic from the 1950's, is Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz. One more book which deals with the effect of modernism on society is C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength, the last of his Space Trilogy. I could see these books being read as an introduction to modern worldviews in perhaps 11th or 12th grade.