Mary-Eileen Swart

Longfellow’s famous poem, Paul Revere’s Ride, is beautifully illustrated in this picture book by Charles Santore. Every page captures both the historical setting and the patriotic significance of a pivotal event in the American Revolution.

Illustrations are dark-toned and shadowy, just right for the middle-of-the-night setting. The suspense builds with extreme close-ups that spill over the edges, and bird’s-eye views sweeping over the nighttime landscape.

This kit is a nice hands-on addition to a study of Roman history, architecture, or engineering. The kit provides all the materials need to build a Roman arch bridge, a suspension bridge, and a truss bridge.

Today, Ash Wednesday, the kids and I began a beautiful Lenten craft project: a Stations of the Cross Grotto kit from Illuminated Ink.

The kit contains all the materials needed to make all fourteen Stations, including full color artwork, colorful semi-precious stones (white Magnesite, purple Amethyst Quartz, pink Coral Quartz, and black Obsidian), wooden craft sticks, 3-D sticky dots, chenille pipe cleaners for hangers, station name plates and numbers, and Mod Podge and brushes. All that you need to provide is a scissors and regular craft glue, such as Elmer’s or Aleene’s.

Nancy Carpentier Brown’s newest book, The Father Brown Reader: Stories from Chesterton, is an adaptation of four of G.K Chesterton’s Father Brown mysteries. It’s a delightful and captivating read-aloud, as well as a perfect book to hand to a young child to read on his own. The four stories – The Blue Cross, The Strange Feet, The Flying Stars, and The Absence of Mr. Glass – are all easy reads, short enough to read in just one sitting.

This is a powerful film; it made me weep, and turn away, and flinch. During much of the movie I was thinking, "I'm sorry, Lord, I'm sorry". My husband and I walked out of the theater barely able to speak, feeling raw and emotionally exhausted. It was absolutely the most intense movie I've ever seen, and every time I began to think, "It's only a movie", I also heard, "He really went through this."

At the rate Laura Berquist is going, homeschoolers are going to need an extra shelf just for her books. Her first, Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum, has already become a classic in its own right. And now Berquist has another book that requires a place in your home: The Harp and The Laurel Wreath. The author begins with the premise that early exposure to poetry encourages a love of the true and the beautiful; memorization of poetry trains the intellect and the imagination; and all of this is good for the soul.

Last night during family rosary, I gave my 7 year old son and 5 year old daughter one sheet each from the Rosary Reflections drawing pad, and the ziplock bag of colored pencils. The children immediately and enthusiastically began drawing the mysteries while we prayed the rosary. This instantly solved a problem for us: How to keep the little ones engaged and close to the rest of the family (mom, dad and two older daughters) while we pray together, instead of watching them dramatically flop over on the floor or wander off to find a toy.

Here is a book designed for religious education programs that is faithful to Church teaching, well-written, and easy to use. Children being taught from it, whether in a classroom or at home, will learn a great deal about their faith, as will their parents or catechists.

Teach It: Eucharist and Mass is based on the Catechism for the Catholic Church (1997) and the Holy Bible (Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version), as well as Canon Law and encyclicals from Pope John Paul II (Ecclesia de Eucharistia).

Imprimatur: John M. D'Arcy, Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, 2003