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Sense and Sensibility

Book cover: 'Sense and Sensibility'
Adapted from the novel by Jane Austen

Though more serious in nature than Emma, Sense and Sensibility portrays life in a more beautiful, if not always more fair, time. Three sisters and their mother are being turned out of their family estate upon their father's death because of the laws of succession to their half-brother, whose scheming wife prevents him from helping them out financially. After they move to a small cottage in the country, the family find friends and happiness in unexpected places.

In This House of Brede

Book cover: 'In This House of Brede'
This film, originally made for British television, is based on the novel In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. It is an admirable portrayal of a woman entering a cloistered Benedictine Abbey relatively late in life and how she learns to love all - the lovable and the "unlovable" for the sake of Christ. While the glimpses of the outside world (of the 1970s) are somewhat dated in appearance - clothing, hairstyles, etc.

A Family Journal

Book cover: 'A Family Journal: A Homeschooling Mother's Companion'
Author(s): 
Rita Munn
This book is a collection of thirty-six "journal entries" (one for each week of the school-year) - stories about the author's family life and homeschooling intertwined with scripture, recipes and her own reflections about life and God's love. (Neat, huh?) The stories are touching, funny, encouraging, sad, uplifting - just like life in this imperfect world (particularly with a family) really is.

Henle Latin, First Year

Book cover: 'Henle Latin, First Year'
Author(s): 
Robert J. Henle, S.J.

Henle's First Year Latin is the book I studied as a homeschooled high schooler under the care of a great old Jesuit priest who left his position as a Latin and Greek professor at the all-boys Jesuit high school for a few hours each week to teach Latin to a small group of homeschoolers.

Latin is Fun, Book 1

Book cover: Latin is Fun, Book 1
Author(s): 
John C. Traupman, Ph.D.

I've been teaching Latin to two small classes in our weekly homeschool co-op for the past year using Latin is Fun as the primary text. The younger students were 9-11 yrs. old and the older students were ages 12-14. The text is a large workbook with a lot of cartoon-like illustrations and dialogue boxes to make the text engaging and intended to help students connect a Latin word directly with an idea rather than to the English word.

The Drovers Road Collection

Book cover: 'The Drovers Road Collection: Adventures in New Zealand'
Author(s): 
Joyce West
Drover's Road is a sheep "station" set way back in the hill country of New Zealand in the 1920s. Gay (Gabrielle) Allan, who lives at Drover's Road with her cousins and her uncle, writes of their happy childhood, of their adventures on the farm, on horseback, and exploring the hills and caves surrounding Drover's Road, in an "upside-down world" (to those of us from the Northern Hemisphere) where at Christmastime the house can be decorated with fresh flowers from the garden and the weather is very warm. It is a world filled with family, humor, hard work and horses.

Catholic Home Schooling

Book cover: 'Catholic Homeschooling'
Author(s): 
Mary Kay Clark

Note: This review is based on the 1993/1998 editions of this book. The book was rewritten in 2006 and that edition has not yet been reviewed. Mary Kay Clark, who is the director of Seton Home Study has recently revised what was the first book published on Cathholic Homeschooling. It has quite a different flavor from Catholic Education: Homeward Bound and make a strong case for homeschooling from the perspective of Catholic teaching and Church documents.

Eucharistic Miracles

Book cover: Eucharistic Miracles and Eucharistic Phenomena in the Lives of the Saints
Author(s): 
Joan Carroll Cruz

Joan Carroll Cruz has clearly spent years researching these very detailed accounts of 36 Eucharistic Miracles dating from the 8th century all the way up to 1970. Each story is carefully related according to the details known today which often include scientific confirmation and papal recognition of the miracles as well as photographs of reliquaries and hosts that remain intact even today. The stories are fascinating and certainly provide aid to people's faith through these very real testaments to the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.