Book(s)

Are you malnourished? Many Catholics feel that they don’t know the faith, they are spiritually malnourished. To satisfy your hunger for the faith, Fr. Classen wants to feed you the fundamentals of your faith in Meat & Potatoes Catholicism.

Determined to write a book that makes sense to those who sit in the pews, Fr. Classen has set out to educate you in the essentials of the faith. As he says, “We need to nourish ourselves and feed voraciously on the basic fundamentals of our Catholic faith and redefine the way we live our lives.”

It’s back in print! One of my favorite series for young children, the Latsch Valley Farm series (formerly called Polish American Girls series), is being reprinted. The first in the series, First Farm in the Valley: Anna’s Story is now available from Bethlehem Books with lovely new illustrations.

It's rather lovely, I think that the Pope uses in his own book a phrase (which he applies to the parables of Jesus) which aptly describes this fascinating book: "...it not only or even primarily adds to what we know, but it changes our lives."

Owls in the Family is a wonderful story of a few years in the life of a young boy growing up in Canada, his friends, and his unusual pets. This tale, by distinguished author Farley Mowat, is told in the first person, recounting hilarious episodes with colorful descriptions, proving that real life can be even more fun than a made-up story.

The clever, user-friendly layout of this book makes it very practical! In the introduction, author Dave Armstrong explains that he hopes to empower Catholics to be able to defend their faith with the aid of this book: I believe the book is capable of doing just that!

I recently came across a program entitled A Reading Program for Overcoming Dyslexia by Cheryl Orlassino. My eight year old falls under the generic term of dyslexia. We've been struggling the last two and half years with reading. We have not completed the book yet as I only ordered it a month ago. So far so good---he does not clam up and cry every time we start our reading/phonics lesson and is beginning to decode on his own without just memorizing the words. In fact, he's writing words from his lessons all over his art work. (My son is an avid little "illustrator".)

Here are two great resources for Catholic bookshelves everywhere. Written by a homeschooling dad named Paul E. Nowak, Guerilla Apologetics for Catholics and Guerilla Apologetics for Life Issues are wonderful resources for educated debates on Catholicism and pro-life concerns.

I first heard about these books because my brother, Paul A. Nowak, did the cartoons in the Life Issues book. So, I do have a bit of bias on these books. But I really like the clean, direct apologetics contained in both of these slim volumes.

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.

This is a detailed (and rather intense) history of the eight French Jesuit martyrs who worked among the Huron Indians in North America in the 1600s: St. Isaac Jogues (1607-1646), St. René Goupil (1608-1642), St. Jean de Lalande (died. 1646), St. Jean de Brébeuf (1593-1649), St. Gabriel Lalemant (1610-1650), St. Antoine Daniel (1601-1648), St. Charles Garnier (1605-1649), and St. Noël Chabanel (1613-1649).

This book, written for fourth-eighth grade, provides an introduction to the different topics in Chemistry. Written from a general Christian perspective, there is nothing in the book that would pose a problem for Catholic readers. While the book appears hefty at 384 pages, the extra wide 3 inch margins, space devoted to clip art and blank pages that run throughout the book result in a light weight approach to chemistry. Each topic is briefly explained in three-five paragraphs (250- 500 words on average) and is followed by a short “Review It” section made up of fill in the blank questions.