We sometimes think of teenagers as immature, selfish and lacking in objectivity. Sean Covey believes they can learn to be otherwise. Using humorous story lines and a heavy sprinkling of anecdotes Covey has set forth a series of steps leading teens toward a more mature and compassionate view of life. While this is a secular book, it is written from a Christian perspective and "the Golden Rule" underlies most of the content.

The 267 pages are divided into twelve chapters covering the seven habits that "effective" teens display. The author doesn't go into detail regarding what "effective" means, but the reader understands it to be embracing life and living it in a positive, productive and compassionate manner. The seven habits include: being proactive (making a choice to respond positively rather then react negatively), beginning with the end in mind, putting first things first, thinking win-win, seek first to understand, then to be understood, synergize (teamwork), sharpen the saw (taking care of your mind, body, heart and soul. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction of the habit written in a style which grabs the reader. Many anecdotes and examples are then provided showing the effects of the habit in the real world. Finally the author provides a series of exercise to help the teen focus on developing that habit. The exercises are clever and would be effective if the teen carried them out.

This is an excellent book and one which I'll happily pass on to my children with a few pages removed. The author does an outstanding job of explaining how self actions effect mood, performance and one's environment. He encourages teens to be competitive with themselves and avoid comparison. He challenges them to develop internal control that will allow them to act rather then react to life. While Covey doesn't suggest that the internal control should be God centered, he presents the material in such a way that a religious teen would naturally understand that God would be at the center of self discipline.

Parents should be aware of a few comments in the book that deal with sensitive issues. One brief anecdote concerns a girl who was sexually abused as a child, and a few times slang is used for obscene gestures. Page 78 covers the topic "What about Sex" and the section "Caring For Your Heart" beginning on page 228 discusses "Sex and Relationships" and includes a 50 item listing titled "You're not ready to have sex if...." The list would be good for a secular teen but would not be suitable for Catholic children. These pages are easily removed from the book. The section "Caring For Your Soul" is general in nature and not in opposition to any Catholic teaching or practice.

In order for the book to be fully appreciated, teens reading it should have experience in social situations outside the home. Many of the anecdotes take place at school but would be understood by teens who have been in any type of group situation. This book is best suited for children 14 years and older. Older Catholic teens would benefit from reading How To Live Nobly and Well (reviewed above) by Edward Garesche, S.J. which touches on similar subjects from a Catholic perspective.

What is history? A story. In The American Revolution for Kids, Janis Herbert has given us a well written, high interest story. Her style of writing is lively and interesting as wells as fair and impartial – giving us a fair and balanced picture of an emotionally turbulent time. This book offers a good overview of the time period (suitable for putting together a unit study on the time period) or interesting reading for its own sake.

Although the majority of the book follows the development of the war from its onset until its conclusion, Herbert also takes some detours, offering information about other events and people of the time – like a typical colonist and the life of soldier – to give us a sense of day-to-day life and customs of the time. The story doesn't end with the closing of the war; the last chapter discusses the Constitutional Convention through the final ratification of the Constitution.

There are many other extra features in this book:

A timeline sets the stage beginning with the French and Indian War (1754-60), following the development of important battles, explaining important dates along the way and finally ending with Congress adopting the Bill of Rights in 1791.

Spotlight biographies cover such important figures as John Hancock, George Washington, and Nathanael Greene. Other interesting facts are also spotlighted throughout the book, such as how many musket balls were made from the torn down, lead statue of King George.

The 21 Activities noted in the title are sprinkled throughout the text and include making a fringed hunting shirt like one worn by frontiersman Gen. Daniel Morgan, reenacting the Battle of Cowpens, creating a powder horn, sewing a pouch, and baking Boston Brown bread.

The end pages include a glossary, a list of famous Patriots and Redcoats, a list of biographies, the Declaration of Independence, web sites to explore, Revolutionary War Sites to visit in person, a Bibliography, and an index.

I would suggest that families make a point of reading about how Catholics were treated at this time, since this is overlooked in most secular texts. Far from religious toleration, there was a great deal of bigotry at that time, creating mixed feelings for Catholics as to which side they should support.

As an avid Chestertonian, I am frequently asked which G.K. Chesterton title I recommend for young people to read. The best and by far the most understandable "first" book of Chesterton's would be The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown.

In this book of the first twelve Father Brown mystery stories, editor Martin Gardner has looked up all the obscure references, which Chesterton frequently threw into his stories - mentions of people popular at the time whom we're no longer familiar with, use of obscure of obsolete English words from 100 years ago, slang expressions from 100 years ago - these are explained to the reader's satisfaction in the numerous footnotes by the helpful Mr. Gardner.

By reading the annotated version of the story, the Father Brown mysteries come alive for young people. And I must note that since several mysteries in the series refer to murders, even a decapitation, I would recommend this book for ages 13 and up.

The Father Brown mysteries are some of Chesterton's most enduring work. In general, people may not remember that Chesterton wrote such classics as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. However, they may recall him as the author of the Father Brown Mysteries, and so it is appropriate to start reading these mysteries first. These mysteries first appeared serialized in various magazines of the times in England. This in part explains the obscure references to people of that day. The other part of the explanation is that Chesterton considered himself a journalist, mainly writing words for newspapers, which would be thrown away shortly after reading. Never did Chesterton imagine that his work would be known and loved 100 years later.

If you are interested in introducing your teenager to the works of G.K. Chesterton; or if youare looking for some good fiction for your teen; or if you wanted to start reading Chesterton yourself and didn't know where to begin, I recommend this book.

Reading Level: Ages 9-12

The Art of Construction (originally published in 1979 under the title Building: The Fight Against Gravity) is one of the finest examples of books that help children understand principles of science as applied to real life situations – in particular buildings and making sure that they stay up in spite of gravity and natural disasters.

Children are introduced to important concepts like "tension" and "compression" with simple hands on exercises to help understand and remember them. Most chapters include a somewhat-more-involved construction project to teach these principles (and have a lot of fun in the process). Numerous illustrations make concepts clearer and aid in understanding the building projects.

The text is very engaging and easy-to-understand. We've found it ideal as a read-aloud with a group. Our co-op has been using it somewhere in the 2nd to 4th grade range, although it could certainly be used by much older students (all the way through high school would be reasonable). The engineer dads in our co-op have been very impressed with the book and the concepts the children study.

The chapter titles are as follows (and give you a little glimpse of the content and style):

• From Cave to Skyscraper
• Building a Tent
• What is a Beam?
• What do We Build Structures With?
• The Floor of Your Room
• A Steel Frame...Made Out of Paper
• The Part of the Building You Don't See
• What Tornadoes, Earthquakes and Changes in Temperature Can Do
• How to Fight Tornadoes and Earthquakes
• Ropes and Cables
• Sticks and Stones
• Strings and Sticks
• Shape and Strength
• Barrels, Dishes, Butterflies, Bicycles Wheels and Eggs
• Balloons...and Back to the Tent

Here are a few random sample paragraphs to give you a sense of the style and substance:

"If you had one of your friends put your hands on each other's shoulders and move your feet away from each other, you will become a full arch and feel compressed by each other's weight. But if your shoes slip on the floor and you begin to slide apart, the arch will collapse. Its ends must be firmly anchored to prevent it from spreading apart." (pg. 15)

"The best way to understand how the frame of a building works is to build one. A good model of a steel frame can be built with paper, provided we first build the separate elements of the frame: the columns, the beams, and the floors. A column should not take too much floor room, but must be strong enough to carry the compressive loads without buckling under them. A column buckles, that is, bends under compression along its axis, if it is too thin. Take a plastic ruler, stand it up, and push downward on it: there comes a point when the ruler will bend out." (page 39)

"The purpose of a building's structure is to guarantee that the building will stand up under all the loads and forces acting on it: the weights, the pressure of the wind, the forces due to temperature changes, and, possibly, the shaking caused by earthquakes. The builders want to make sure that the building will not collapse, and they hope it will not even be damaged, since in the first case it may kill people and in the second it may be costly to repair. They also want to make sure that the building will not move around. If a house were to slide down the slope of the hill it is built on, or if a skyscraper were to be toppled by the wind, the buildings would have failed their purpose, even if their structures might sometimes ed up undamaged." (page 57)

This is one of the books that I want to make sure each of my children have a chance to study sometime during their school years. Highly recommended!