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This is a novel about a mouse among mice. There is a community of mice that lives in Redwall Abbey. The newest novice, Matthias, cuts a willing but uninspiring figure. He has an inordinate passion for Martin the warrior mouse whose legend is like that of Arthur - except that it lacks everything but the ability to swing a sword for the right side. There isn't much depth to Martin. But thanks to his efforts the abbey is become a place of peace and goodness to the surrounding forest community of animals. The abbey is an impressive structure and a formidable fortress despite it's peaceful look. But it is not 'deep' either -beyond the fact that it is an abbey and that the inhabitants wear robes God, religion and eternal truth is absent to the players in this story. Cluny the Scourge is a rat. He is a big, ugly, evil rat with only one eye left due to his warlike ways. Cluny has a legion of rats, ferrets and other unsavory characters in his company. And Cluny is on the move. He has been wandering down from the north spreading despair and ruin - killing, destroying and pillaging wherever he felt like stopping. Cluny feels like stopping at Redwall abbey. But, he finds the abbey of the 'peaceloving' little mouse community much more impenetrable than he expected - due in large part to Matthais and company. Matthias turns out to be a genius, a rabbit-tail of good luck, and a guy who everybody seems to love and trust. The book goes on and on with battle, skirmish and raids. Matthias is searching and searching for the sword of the legendary Martin. He has a sixth sense about it's ultimate importance (there is way too much sixth sense and forshadowing in this story for my taste). In fact the Abbey is often without his incredible leadership skills and sixth sense intuition because he keeps taking unnecessary sorties. But by extrordinary good luck (and because he's the hero of the book) he survives them all. I still wonder what the sense of this is in the book. It is poor philosopy and worse morals. Cluny, on the other hand, is conducting war as a leader of a rough hewn horde of this type would. In fact the author gets inside his head on a number of occasions regarding strategy, psycholgy and primitive politics. And from what I can tell he is probably quite accurate! This is an interesting study since the gallic wars and other writings of succesful generals usually view the other kind of army - the good guys. I kept wondering where the people were. There is no explanation. Though I did learn late in the book that the abbey was actually built by the mice in ages past (it is not the mouse occupation of a man made church which one would find so believable!) And more importantly I kept wondering why I should be sympathetic to Matthias. He didn't ever quite earn the right to my sympathy even though I knew he was the good guy. And his novice's habit failed to stir me as it seemed to be little beyond just the type of clothes he happened to wear. This is an OK story. I don't get the fanfare though. There are MUCH better war tales out there.

Father Mateo was the pen name of a Catholic priest who was also a professor at a prominent university. From 1987 until his death in 1996, he hosted the “Ask Father” forum on Catholic Information Network.

“In 1987, Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical Mother of the Redeemer (Redemptoris Mater), asked all Christians, ‘Why should we not all together look to Mary as our common Mother, who prays for the unity of God’s family?’ Stung somehow by the Pope’s friendly words and bothered by ‘a campaign to revive Marian devotion in the Church,’ CRI [the Christian Research Institute] goes on the attack. ‘The time has come for a Protestant response. Just as surely as a man cannot ‘take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned’ (Prov. 6:27), Catholics cannot renew their emphasis on Mary without injuring ecumenism.’” (from the Introduction)

This 101 page book is a detailed response to a two-part article from the Christian Research Institute, but also an excellent, engaging introduction to Marian apologetics and a beautiful confirmation of Church teaching – even using Protestant sources to help refute CRI and to back up his arguments!

Can you believe there is another reading program that promises proficiency? Well, Right Track Reading Lessons, by Miscese R. Gagen looks pretty good as an option. At $25.00 a book, it’s not necessarily a cheap option, but I like the way Ms. Gagen keeps it simple. It’s all text with no colored pictures or glitzy-ness – what you see is what you get. She recommends home-made or inexpensive manipulatives to teach the sounds – the 44 smallest unit sounds that must be mastered for reading proficiency. Her game suggestions can be created the night before the lesson with minimal effort or expense.

Ms. Gagen’s method is a systematic-direct phonics instruction where you teach your child explicitly and directly in a very organized and complete manner. Her book is comprised of 102 scripted lessons to reinforce what has been learned while also teaching new sounds or combinations. She takes the common or simple sounds first, than the uncommon or complex. She then moves to multiple sounds for vowels (short, long, combined), the r-controlled combinations and then on to the more uncommon phonograms.

Ms. Gagen has included word-lists which illustrate each lesson as well as suggestions for manipulatives and games to reinforce the learning. An advocate of short lessons, (never longer than 20-30 minutes), she does recommend a schedule of daily practice with the phonics – and a caution NOT to move on until you and the child are comfortable with the current lesson.

I like much of what she says, and will implement some of her ideas and games, but I won’t use her program exclusively to teach my own family. I just don’t think it’s enough, as a stand-alone program, to get a child interested in wanting to learn to read.

Another negative is a personal pet peeve – the author constantly uses “kid” or “kids” instead of “child” or “student”. The lack of formality bothered me a bit. Also, the book needs an editor to catch misspellings or words that spell-check can’t find (i.e., “your” instead of “you’re”).

If you’d like further information or to purchase this phonics program, check out Ms. Gagen’s website. She has sample chapters and further explanations of her system to get your child on the “right track to reading proficiency”.

This simple booklet offers a new idea in helping children learn to meditate upon the Rosary. After six pages introducing the prayers and mysteries of the Rosary (including the Luminous mysteries), there are 26 coloring sheets with a rosary in the center and five segments where children can draw their own pictures of each of the mysteries. Each coloring sheet lists all 20 mysteries of the Rosary. We're planning on using these sheets as a centerpiece in our history timeline binders to illustrate the basic story of the Life of Christ as well as to jump-start a renewed interest in the Rosary in the younger children. Keeping to the Biblical and Apologetics emphasis of the Ascension Press materials, the overview of the Mysteries of the Rosary consist entirely of Biblical citations and quotes for each mystery. The format has a very professional look to it and this resource would be great for use in homes, schools and CCD classes.