What's New

Jane's Historic Military Aircraft: Recognition Guide

Book cover: 'Jane's Historic Military Aircraft: Recognition Guide'
Author(s): 
Tony Holmes
There are a wealth of good and interesting books about the two World Wars: The Winged Watchman by Hilda Van Stockum, Enemy Brothers by Constance Savery, Flying Aces of World War I by Gene Gurney and many others. After reading a number of these, I began to wish for a book with pictures of the various types of airplanes in order to understand and appreciate the stories better.

Escape from Warsaw

Author(s): 
Ian Serraillier
Escape from Warsaw, also known as the Silver Sword, is a very historically accurate account (based on a conglomeration of many true stories) of a Polish family who are separated by war and struggle and find each other again through many hardships. An interesting and likeable story beloved by many, it's a great read for ages ten and up.

Callirobics

Book cover: 'Callirobics'
Author(s): 
Liora Laufer

Callirobics will significantly and quickly improve your child's penmanship, even though he'll never form a single letter while using it. If your child has difficulty with consistency in formation, slant, and spacing, thinks he "just can't do it", has a bad attitude toward penmanship, or simply benefits from auditory and kinesthetic modes of learning, this may help.

Saint Thomas More of London

Book cover: Saint Thomas More of London
Author(s): 
Elizabeth Ince

An interesting and readable life of Thomas More (1477-1535): the great saint, scholar, father, lawyer, statesman, author, patriot and lover of the Church. The author, a descendant of Thomas More, has included many interesting details and anecdotes that bring this great man to life and help us better understand who he was. Even as an adult who became interested in St. Thomas More from the movie A Man for All Seasons, I found many tidbits that helped fill in the details not present in the movie – particularly regarding More's life before he became Chancellor of England.

Giant of the Western Trail

Book cover: 'Giant of the Western Trail'
Author(s): 
Rev. Michael McHugh, S.J.

Pierre-Jean De Smet (1801-1873) was a beloved missionary in the American West who brought the Gospels and the Catholic Faith to many Indians as well as fighting for peace and justice for the Indians and those suffering from the Civil War. A substantial figure in American history, many may remember from the Little House Books that the city in South Dakota that the Ingalls settled in was named after this renowned priest.

Downright Dencey

Book cover: Downright Dencey
Author(s): 
Caroline Dale Snedeker

This charming story, a Newbery Honor Book for 1928, has just been reprinted by Bethlehem Books. Set on the Island of Nantucket, off of Cape Cod in Massachusetts in the 1810s and 1820s, the story follows the Coffyn family in the largely Quaker community of Nantucket, and especially their daughter Dionis "Dencey". Dencey is a young girl from a proper Quaker family with a temper and a heart of gold. She befriends an outcast boy and teaches him to read in order to make up for hurting him in a fit of temper.

Life is Beautiful

This serves as a tamer, but every-bit-as-powerful, version of Schindler's List (at least in-so-far as it portrays the reality of the Nazi concentration camps and the hopelessness and unfairness suffered by its prisoners). Perhaps because this is a "fable" rather than biography, it manages to portray the awfulness of war in a more subtle way - without all the gore and through the eyes of a child. It's still quite intense, though, and would only be suitable for teens and adults.