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This book is filled with prayers for children from cover to cover! The premise of author Kelly Renz is that formal prayers are too distant from the language children use everyday. Moving through the liturgical year and reflecting specifically a reading from each daily mass, the prayers have been written in simple language and are of short length--five to seven lines at the most.

God Listens to Our Children may be very be useful in Catholic homeschool both for families that make it to daily mass and those who are not able to do so. In the first case the children will enjoy the opportunity to revisit the daily reading and in the second case they will have an opportunity to reflect on the mass readings. Sundays readings display cycles A, B and C options, while daily readings in ordinary time have both Year I and Year II passages.

The author has given each set of readings a simple theme, such as Trust, or Belief, Mercy, or Hearing God. An index lists all of the prayers' themes in the end, so users can also look for prayers specific to their changing needs. She has also listed one related Catechism passage below each set of daily prayers. The responsorial psalms for each day are also included.

If you are interested in purchasing this book to aid in the praying with your children, you might want to leaf over it beforehand and read a few prayers just to make sure the style is to your liking (I include a sample below). Although I am one to promote teaching children the richness of the formal (and more complex English) prayers of the Church, these simply phrased ones could be welcome and helpful at times.

Another note is on the absence of prayers related to the saints' feastdays. The author did, however, include prayers related to the two major Marian feasts of Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, as well as for All Saints Day. Maybe this would be material for a follow-up book?

Twenty-Fifth Tuesday in Ordinary Time

Pleasing God

Dear Lord, the book of Proverbs tells me a lot about how You see things. You look at each person's heart. May You look at my heart and be pleased. Show me how to make my heart more pleasing to You. Inspire me to read Proverbs and other books in Your bible.

St. Therese of Lisieux is a very popular saint whose life story is easily understood by children. While not full of action and adventure, her life story's simplicity and sweetness are appealing to even the most worldly of children. This lovely picture book, with its carefully chosen vocabulary and sentence structures, is written on a level that will allow a 3rd-grade and up child to read it for himself or herself. The full-page illustrations are attractive, colorful, simple, and modern in style, adding to the story rather than overwhelming it.

God's Little Flower is not so much a biography but an age-appropriate explanation of St. Therese's spirituality. There are no dates or quotations or geography lessons slipped into the text, yet it manages to convey an even more important lesson---that of quiet, loving service to God through our prayers and sufferings.

God's Will Be Done is the story of Jonah and the Whale and The Wall is the story of the Fall of Jericho. Both Bible stories are presented as audio dramas, performed with full casts, music and sound effects. The shorter length and simpler dialogue of these in particular make them especially appealing to younger children.

This beloved story of the Old South and its disappearance is one of the great classic movies of all times. It's a very healthy thing for Americans, who predominantly side with the North, to at least have some understanding of the South. This movie isn't a bad place to start. Aside from its historical significance, it is a complex story of love, generosity, hate and thick-headedness. It's the sort of movie I can watch numerous times (like Casablanca) and get a little more out of it each time. The main characters do a lot of despicable things and, while the morality of the story in its entirety is sound, it's probably too complex for young children who might be inclined, for example, to take Scarlett's side in every issue. There are also tricky issues of war, adultery, fornication and prostitution that are touched upon in the story, although these are handled quite delicately (particularly in comparison to more modern movies). An older child (particularly a well-read one) in upper grade school or high school will probably wish for Scarlett to behave otherwise and admire the fine qualities in Melanie (who at first seems foolishly trusting of other people, but is seen in the end to be both wiser and more loving). By the way, I disagree with the "G" rating on this movie. I think today it would probably get a "PG" rating.