This reading text is the second of three used in the third grade at Seton Home Study School. My children have enjoyed many of the stories as a read-aloud. The book provides a wide variety of selections - fairy tales, poems, folk tales, biographies, etc. These new reprints have a glossy soft-cover with a beautiful image and text with black-and-white pictures. Although the original images within the text were color, these reproductions are well-done. Given that some of the illustrations are of the cheezy-sixties variety, I think some of the illustrations actually came out nicer in black and white than in the original color.

Originally published in 1928, the current edition published by TAN Books is a complete reproduction of the 1934 edition. The 1990 editor added some footnotes to bring the series more "up-to-date." This is a highly recommended series — it is the recommended high school religion text for Kolbe Academy, Mother of Divine Grace and Seton Home Study. I have not worked my way through an entire book from this series yet, but I found it to be an excellent reference resource, especially before the Catechism of the Catholic Church was released. It makes an excellent reference because it is laid out in a very practical manner. It is possible to study a single chapter in the middle of the book in order to more fully understand a particular topic, such as the Catholic Church's teaching on Evolution (ch. VI, Bk. 1 The Origin of the Human Race) which did not change with Vatican II or Our Holy Father's recent (and highly misunderstood and misquoted) statement on Evolution. Because of this practical format, parents may find this series very useful in learning about a particular concept more fully in order to teach it to their younger children. The series is extensively illustrated.

The full series of Fr. Laux's "A Course in Religion" includes the following titles:

• Chief Truths of the Faith (Book I)
• Mass and the Sacraments (Book II)
• Catholic Morality (Book III), and
• Catholic Apologetics (Book IV)

For those interested in using this as a high school religion series, Laura Berquist has syllabi for this series, which include quizzes and answer keys and are available from Emmanuel Books. Seton Home Study offers, even for those not signed up with their entire program, a course using this text. This service includes telephone consultation, test correcting, grading, etc.

This title offers charming, child-friendly pen-and-ink illustrations to introduce the colors (in Latin) to young children. The text is quite a bit more complex than How Many Animals? Quot Animalia?, but would provide a good opportunity for young Latin scholars to practice their pronunciation by reading the book aloud to a younger sibling. Since the topic is "colors", I think this book will be best enjoyed if an artist in the family colors in the illustrations first. Translations and glossary are in the back.

This book introduces names of family members - mother, father, sister, brother, grandfather, grandmother, fraternal and paternal aunt and uncle, cousins and God - through the eyes of a baby. I liked how small details on some of the pictures - like the words on a T-shirt - are written in Latin (and the translations are included in the back along with the rest of the text). The text is charming, but these pictures are a bit on the "goofy" side (very cartoon like and some weird proportions). For me, the pictures detracted somewhat from the text (although I admit to being a person who is rather fussy about illustrations - particularly in children's books). Also, there is a slight editing problem on pages 13-14 where the illustrations of the paternal and fraternal aunts are mixed up.